Son of Jor El
by Russkafin
Summary: H.G. Wells appears in Smallville to warn Clark that something has gone horribly wrong with his future... he has become a tyrant instead of a superhero.
1. Chapter 1

Smallville: Son of Jor-El

Chapter One

Clark Kent gave himself one last glance in the rearview mirror, ran his hand through his hair and got out of the truck. He grabbed the crate with the Talon's weekly produce order out of the back, then stopped to breathe in the fresh Kansas air. It really was a beautiful day outside, and he was glad that he was almost done with his errands so that he could enjoy the rest of it.

He walked into the Talon, hoping Lana wouldn't be too busy and they could talk for awhile. Things had actually been going well between them lately, and he was hoping that if he didn't make a total mess of things, he'd get up the courage to ask her to go to the BNL concert with him that weekend.

As luck would have it, business was slow that afternoon, and Clark managed to catch Lana as she was finishing up cleaning one of the tables.

"Hey Lana," Clark said with a big smile.

"Oh, hi Clark!" she said, her face brightening. "You can just put that behind the counter, I'll take care of it in a minute."

"Okay." Clark set the produce crate down behind the counter, then walked back over to Lana. "So… slow day?"

"Kind of. I guess everyone's out enjoying this nice weather."

"Yeah, makes sense." Clark took a deep breath and tried to focus on sounding casual. "So, you doing anything this weekend?"

Lana gave him a suspicious eye. She could sense what was coming, and, while she wanted to get excited at the thought of Clark asking her to do something, it seemed that more often than not, any plans they made always fell through.

"I'm not sure yet. Chloe and I were thinking of making a trip to the Galleria Mall in Grandville ."

Clark nodded. "Oh. That's cool."

"Why, Clark? What's up?"

"Oh, I just… uh…"

Just then, a short old man in a bowler hat walked up to them. "Excuse me, miss," he said, smiling and tipping his hat. "Could I trouble you for a cup of coffee?"

Lana turned her attention from Clark to the old man. "Sure! Why don't you have a seat, I'll bring it right out."

"Ah, if I might get it 'to go'?"

"Sure thing."

Clark exhaled. Great timing, old man. Another swing and miss for Clark Kent. He watched as Lana went over to the coffee machine, then glanced at the door. Maybe he should just leave, and save himself any further embarrassment.

"Mr. Kent, if I may have a word with you," the old man said.

Clark blinked. "Me?"

"Indeed."

"How do you know my name?"

"I know quite a lot about you, Clark. I'm afraid I don't have time to explain everything quite yet, but suffice it to say that it's imperative that you come with me. The future of your world, and several others, may depend upon it."

Clark laughed. "I'm sorry, I don't even know your name, and I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Of course, how rude of me." The man removed his hat and made a slight bow. "My name is Herbert George Wells."

"As in H.G. Wells, the writer?"

"One and the same."

"Okay, English was never my best subject, but I'm pretty sure H.G. Wells died a long time ago."

"Ah, but time is relative, my boy. Quite relative."

Lana returned with the coffee. "Do you two know each other, Clark?"

"No," Clark said, looking a little uncomfortable.

"You seem to be awfully chatty for two people who've never met," Lana said.

The man who had identified himself as H.G. Wells took a sip of the coffee. "Mmm," he said. "Delightful, miss!"

"Hey, I have to get going, Lana," Clark said. "Can I… give you a call, later? After you get out of work?"

Lana pursed her lips, once again skeptical of Clark's intentions. "Sure. I'll wait right by the phone," she said, sarcasm seeping through a little stronger then she'd intended. Then she gave Clark a little smile to let him know she hadn't meant that to be quite as mean as it sounded.

As Clark turned to walk out, Wells followed behind him.

"Clark, please, I do need to speak with you."

"Look," Clark said, a little annoyed that he hadn't secured the date with Lana that he'd hoped for. "I really don't have time for this, and I really don't want to be bothered."

"I know your secret," Wells said.

Clark stared at him. Over the past few years, there had been several people who had learned his secret, and good things rarely came of it. The names Sam Phalen, Roger Nixon, Tina Greer and Van McNulty all came too readily to mind.

"What do you want?" Clark breathed through clenched teeth.

"As I said, the future depends on you coming with me, my boy. I will be able to explain everything in due time."

"Wait a minute," Clark said. "H.G. Wells… wrote 'The Time Machine'… And you're saying the future depends on me coming with you… Don't tell me you expect me to believe you're a time traveler!"

Wells took a sip of the coffee. "When you step outside, you will see that in your haste to see Miss Lang, you accidentally parked in front of a fire hydrant. That incorrigible Sheriff Adams is writing you a parking ticket as we speak. When you try to protest, she will comment on the amount of time you spend here, and make a reference to you needing glasses."

Clark stared at Wells for another moment, then ran out the door.

Next to his truck stood Sheriff Adams, writing him a ticket for parking in front of a fire hydrant.

"Sheriff Adams," Clark said, running up to her. "I'm sorry, I can't believe I parked in front of that hydrant!"

"Ahh, Mr. Kent," Adams said, her voice filled with her usual sense of disdain. "I should've known this was your truck, Lord knows it's here often enough. You'd think with as much time as you spend at this coffee house you'd have noticed a little thing like a fire hydrant and a no parking sign, hm? Or do you need to start wearin' them glasses again like you had awhile back?"

Clark was dumbfounded. "Um. Yes, ma'am."

"All I get today is a 'yes ma'am'? No glib comeback or snappy remark? I'm disappointed, Mr. Kent." She continued filling out the ticket. "Next time, be a little more careful, hm?"

By now Clark wasn't even hearing her. He'd already turned back toward the Talon, to see Wells standing in the doorway. Wells glanced at his pocket watch.

"I wouldn't worry about the ticket, Clark," Wells said, as Clark approached him. "You won't have to pay it, anyway. If I were you I'd worry about the Smallville Savings and Loan."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Blue Sedan, license plate BYC 224," Wells said.

"What?"

The sound of an alarm shattered the peaceful air of the previously quiet afternoon. Clark turned to see that, up the street, three armed men were running out of the Smallville Savings and Loan, carrying bags full of money.

Sheriff Adams cursed under her breath and ran for her squad car, leaving Clark's parking ticket unfinished.

Clark looked back at Wells. Wells just nodded.

With all onlookers distracted by the commotion up the street, Clark slipped away in a burst of super speed. In an instant, he was up the street, across from the Savings and Loan, as the men were running towards a car that was waiting for them.

The car was a blue Sedan with the license plate BYC 224.

Fire filled Clark's eyes as blasts of heat vision tore from them, burning the tires on the getaway car. In seconds all four tires were flat, stranding the would-be getaway car, and leaving the robbers as easy prey for the police to round up.

Clark zipped back over to Wells, who smiled and took another sip of his coffee.

"All right," Clark said with a sigh. "I'm ready to listen."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Clark pulled the Kent family truck into the driveway and glanced over at Wells, who was still sipping his coffee in the passenger seat.

"I don't know what my parents are going to say when I tell them I came home with a writer from the 19th century," Clark commented.

Wells glanced at his pocket watch again. "Actually, your parents are still at the farmer's market, and won't be back until 5:17."

Clark blinked. "All right, you're really starting to freak me out."

Wells frowned. "My dear boy, if you're getting 'freaked out' already, I'm not quite sure you'll be able to handle any of this."

"Any of what? I wish you'd just tell me what's going on."

Wells opened the door and exited the vehicle. Clark turned off the engine and followed suit.

"Very well. I'll be as forthcoming as possible." Wells took a deep breath. "As you deduced earlier, I am a time traveler. In my journeys through time, I discovered something quite interesting. There exists not just one reality, one universe, but rather an infinite number of alternate worlds and alternate timelines, each unique in it's own way. Some are very much alike, some are startlingly different. You, Clark, exist in many of these realities that I have seen, in some form or another."

"I do?"

"Yes… the lone survivor of a dying world, sent here in a rocket as an infant. You grow up, under the influence of our yellow sun, to develop powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men."

"You know all about me, then… about Krypton… everything?" Clark was finding it hard to be skeptical of this man, despite his fantastic claims. He just knew too many details to be a fraud.

"The story remains the same, though details change," Wells said. "I spent a lot of time with one particular version of yourself, from another reality. In fact, in the future of that universe, your descendants go on to create a perfect Utopian society."

"And what about my universe?"

Wells sighed. "That is why I've come. As I said, Clark… there is something wrong with the future of your universe."

Wells reached into his pocket and pulled out a small white cube. He casually tossed it into the air. Suddenly, it wasn't a cube any more. It opened up, and expanded into a kind of window, hanging there in mid-air, right in front of them. A strange blue light poured out of it. Clark slowly walked around the window, looking at it from all angles and trying to comprehend what he was seeing.

"What is this?"

"This is a window through time. It's a bit of technology I picked up from the future of that other world I spoke of. It's much more convenient than my previous mode of time travel."

Clark wasn't even hearing him. He cautiously reached out a hand towards the window of light. It felt cold. He pulled his hand back.

"I realize this is all a bit much to take in," Wells said. "But, if you would be so kind as to come with me, perhaps this will all make a bit more sense."

"Come with you… through this? Like… walk through it?"

"Yes, quite," Wells said, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. "Don't worry, my boy, I'll have you back in no time." He glanced at his pocket watch again. "I mean that literally, you know. Once we fix the flaw in the time stream, I'll drop you back at this very moment, and it will be as though you never left."

Clark looked around, hoping for a moment that Pete Ross was going to jump out of the bushes and reveal that this was all some big practical joke. No such luck.

"All right," Clark said, finally. "Let's go."

Wells smiled. "Excellent." He gestured towards the window, indicating for Clark to go first.

Warily, Clark reached out his hand again. This time, he reached right into the shimmering blue light. It felt like reaching into a cold swimming pool. He looked back at Wells. What if this was some kind of trap? He pulled his hand back again.

Just then, his super hearing picked up the sound of Lana Lang's car approaching the Kent farm. Lana must have left her shift at the Talon early. She was on her way there. There was no way Clark would be able to explain Wells, much less the freakish blue window through time hanging in the middle of the air.

"You'll drop me right back here when this is all done?" he asked, quickly.

"Indeed."

Clark plunged his hand back into the window, then stepped the rest of the way through.

For a moment, he felt as though he didn't exist. His feet were not touching any solid ground, as far as he could tell. The blue light invaded his pupils so intensely that it made it impossible for him to see even his own hand in front of his face. The intense cold sensation was so strong that he couldn't feel anything else. He wanted to turn around, to get out of whatever this was, but he was unable to sense his own body enough to even move it. Then, in less than a second, he was coming out of another window. He stumbled forward, trying to regain his balance as his feet hit solid ground once more.

A moment later, Wells stepped through the window behind him. "Yes, it is a bit disorienting the first time. Should have warned you. Sorry." The window closed in on itself, and turned back into the white cube. Wells placed it back in his pocket.

Clark looked around. They seemed to be in some kind of small, one-room log cabin. It was modestly decorated, mostly with furniture that looked to be out of the 1800's. A fire burned in the fire place, keeping the room warm. A large grandfather clock stood against the wall next to the fire place. Clark quickly noticed that there was no door. There was one window, but the curtains were drawn. There did not seem to be any light seeping through, so Clark guessed it was night time.

"This is the future?" Clark asked.

Wells chuckled. "No, dear boy. This is my home away from home… where I go to 'get away from it all,' if you will."

"Where… um… 'when' are we?" Clark asked.

"We are no time. We are no place."

This was beginning to be too much for Clark to grasp. "How is that possible?" he asked, his voice revealing his frustration.

"Are you familiar with the 'big bang' theory, Clark?"

"Sure... the moment the universe was created."

Wells walked over to the window. He pulled open the curtains.

Clark slowly approached the window. He blinked. He blinked again. Outside, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not really darkness, but no light, either. No sky. No stars. No ground. Just absolute nothing.

"We are in an alternate reality where the big bang never happened," Wells explained, like it was a perfectly logical explanation. "This universe, quite simply, does not exist."

Clark turned away from the window. He started to say something several times, then stopped himself, as if he was physically unable to convey the words that his mind was trying desperately to form.

"How?" he finally blurted out.

Wells looked puzzled. He didn't understand what part of it Clark didn't get. "How what?"

"How can we exist here if nothing else does? What are we breathing? What is this house built on? How come everything doesn't just disappear, or fall apart, or drift away or something? And aren't you worried you might mess something up? I mean, even if there is no universe here, what if your being here somehow… I don't know… screws up the… nothingness?"

Wells laughed. "Ahh… not to worry, Clark."

He walked over to the grandfather clock. He reached up and grabbed hold of the face of the clock, and swung it open. Inside was a complex network of microscopic machinery. In the center of it all was a beautiful shimmering diamond, with millions of individual laser beams passing through it from all different directions.

"It's an invention of mine. I call it a Temporal Disruption Regulator. It causes this house and everything in it to vibrate at a slightly different speed than everything else in this reality."

"'Everything else' being nothing," Clark said, still confused.

"Yes, now you're getting it," Wells said. "It effectively prevents us from being affected by anything else in the time stream, and prevents the time stream from being affected by anything that we do. Think of it as creating a… a force field, around the cabin, keeping us in and everything else out."

"'Everything else' being nothing," Clark said, once again.

"Indeed."

Clark rubbed his temples. He'd never experienced a real headache before, but he had a feeling this must what it felt like. "Look, Mr. Wells… this is all a bit much for me to take in."

"I understand, Clark. My apologies."

"Can we just get on with whatever it is that we need to do to fix my future?"

Wells' expression turned from cheerful to grim. "Ah… well, I'm afraid I haven't been quite up front about everything, my dear boy."

"What do you mean?"

"The problem, Clark… is you. What you become, in the future of your own reality… it's changed. The future your world once held was bright and full of hope. Now, it's become a horrific abomination, and it's begun to affect other realities as well. I'm afraid I can't allow it to continue."

Clark was genuinely scared by the tone Wells' voice had taken on. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, dear boy, that at least until I figure out what has gone wrong with your future… I cannot allow you to leave this place. The future of your world, and others, depends upon it." Wells once again took out the white cube. He tossed it into the air, and the window returned. "Don't try to follow me, Clark. I've recalibrated the window. If you try to pass through it, it will throw us both into the void of eternity."

With that, Wells stepped through the window. It closed behind him, leaving Clark Kent alone in the cabin in the middle of nowhere, the middle of nothing, the middle of never.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Clark wasn't sure quite how to gauge time in a universe that didn't exist. Every so often he'd glance at the grandfather clock, but it was of little help… the hands would speed up or slow down unpredictably, and sometimes they even ran backwards. He wondered if it had anything to do with the Disruption Regulator inside the clock's face, trying to keep the void outside from realizing this little cabin didn't belong here.

How long had it been since Wells left? No way to tell for sure. Clark was pretty sure it had been at least a few hours by now. He stared out the window into the cold, empty nothingness outside. It was fascinating, and a little bit frightening.

Wells' words echoed in Clark's mind. "The problem, Clark… is you. …I cannot allow you to leave this place. The future of your world, and others, depends upon it." What did that mean? He replayed the words in his head, over and over again. He felt sick inside. Sick, and lonely.

How much longer was he going to be here? He walked away from the window. He could only stare into the emptiness for so long. He began pacing again.

He thought about something else Wells had said. Earlier, when they were still in Smallville. "Once we fix the flaw in the time stream, I'll drop you back at this very moment, and it will be as though you never left." If Wells had the ability to return at any moment he chose, then why hadn't he come back right away? He could have returned to the exact moment that he'd left, and then Clark wouldn't be here, by himself, waiting.

What if something had happened to him?

Clark stopped pacing.

What if something had happened to Wells, and that was why he didn't come back? What if he was never coming back, and Clark was trapped here, in a universe that didn't exist, forever?

He felt a surge of panic. He had to get out of here. He ran to the window. His first instinct was to smash it open. Fortunately, he resisted this urge. Even if he could get out, where was he going to go? There was literally nothing outside of the cabin. He turned back to the clock. He opened the face, like he had seen Wells do, and stared at the crystal and the laser beams. What if he ripped the crystal out? Destroyed the Regulator? For all he knew, if he did that, he and the cabin would cease to exist. Probably not a good plan, either… but he was grasping at straws to find some semblance of control, something he could do that would change something, change anything.

Clark took a deep breath. He shut the clock face and turned away from it. Think rationally. He needed to find a way out. Some way to get out of here, get home, get anywhere. Maybe Wells had a spare one of those cubes hidden somewhere? Clark focused his eyes, and searched the room with his x-ray vision.

The fire place. There was something behind it. A passageway of some kind! Clark didn't even bother looking for whatever loose brick or secret lever must trigger the fireplace to swing away. He reached in, through the flames, grabbed the sides of the fireplace, and pulled, ripping the entire fireplace right out of the wall.

Clark stepped through the passageway and into a room that was just as big as the one he'd just spent the last few hours in. However, there was only one thing in this room. A large sled-shaped vehicle with all kinds of levers and dials across the dashboard.

Something else Wells had said crept into Clark's mind now, though he'd barely been paying attention when he said it. When Wells took out the cube, he'd said it was more convenient than his previous mode of time travel.

Clark was standing before H.G. Wells' time machine.

This was his ticket out of here. Clark sat down inside the time machine, then felt his excitement vanish as he stared at the controls, which were all completely meaningless to him. Wells had used this machine not only to travel across different times, but even different realities. How could Clark possibly even begin to guess where this machine would take him, much less how to get it to take him home?

He looked over the controls. He looked at where the dials were set, trying to make heads or tails of what they all meant.

There was one dial that seemed to be for the date of destination. It was set to a year that was ten years in the future… at least, what Clark considered to be the future.

Slowly, a thought occurred to him. What if Wells had meant for him to find this time machine? If he was right, and something had happened to Wells… if he was in some kind of trouble, and that's why he hadn't come back… he knew enough about Clark and his powers to know that he would find the time machine. He knew that Clark would try to use it to get out of there.

Maybe Wells had set the machine to Clark's future… the future that was in peril, the future that Wells had gone to try to stop. He knew that if he didn't make it back, that Clark would find the time machine, and could use it to come after him, maybe save him, maybe fix whatever was wrong with the future.

He looked again at the date the machine was set to. Was this where Wells had gone? Did he want Clark to follow? It would be so easy to change the dial, set it for home instead. But if there were so many different alternate realities, like Wells had said, how did he even know he would end up in his own universe?

Clark took a deep breath. Wells had left the machine set to this specific date for a reason. He must have. It was the only thing that made sense. Right?

There was a large lever near Clark's legs. He guessed that was what made the machine go.

He put his hand on the dial that he believed controlled the date of destination. What if he changed it? What if he set it for what he was pretty sure was home? He could go back to Smallville, destroy the time machine, and forget that any of this had ever happened.

But if Wells was right… if something really was wrong with the future, and it was Clark's fault… Then wasn't it his responsibility to fix it? To do what he could to make things right? If something had happened to Wells, and Clark didn't do anything to save him…

The more he looked at the settings on the machine, the more certain he was. Wells had left the machine on these settings on purpose, so that Clark could come after him if anything went wrong. He was sure of it now. Something had gone wrong. And Clark was going after him.

He closed his eyes.

He pulled the lever.

The machine gave out a low hum as it sprang to life. Clark held on tight as he felt it begin to shake. He looked around in disbelief as the room itself started to slip away, flashes of light and color taking the place of his surroundings. He felt cold again. The machine shook violently as time and space blurred and gave way around it, the very fabric of reality opening up to let them through. Clark felt a sensation of weightlessness and of wind in his face as the time machine carried him off towards his unknown destination.

Almost as soon as it had started, it was over. The wind died down, the cold sensation passed, and the machine was back on solid ground. As the light faded, things slowly came back into view.

He was outside now, no longer in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. He was in the middle of a city, but he could see no people anywhere… as though everything had been abandoned. Clark stepped out of the time machine, and stumbled a bit as he did, losing his footing. He took a deep breath, and felt his lungs burn. It was then that he noticed a strange green mist hanging in the air.

He clutched at his chest, taking in huge gulps of air, trying to breathe. He felt a stinging in his eyes as they began to water. He looked up at the sky. The whole sky, as far as he could see, had a horrible burnt green tint to it.

He fell to his knees. The only time he'd ever known pain anything like this was when he was near kryptonite.

Clark quickly climbed back into the time machine. Whatever this place was, he had to get out of there, now. He turned the dials, setting them to take him somewhere else, anywhere else that wasn't here. He reached for the lever again.

"Freeze! Don't move!"

A voice cut through the air. He wasn't alone after all.

Two figures descended from the sky, covered from head to toe in some kind of protective armor. They wore jet packs strapped to their backs, and each had what looked like a laser cannon mounted on their right arm. They touched down right in front of the time machine, with their weapons trained on Clark.

"Step out of the vehicle," one of them demanded.

Clark was barely able to keep conscious, his head pounding. He grabbed the lever and pulled.

The two men opened fire on the time machine, their laser beams cutting it apart like a knife through butter. The lever came off in Clark's hand as one of the beams tore right through it. Clark threw his hands over his head and dove out of the time machine as it was ripped to shreds, landing on the pavement with a thud and gasping for air.

The two men towered over Clark as his vision started to blur and the world began to go dark.

"State your name," one of the men said.

Clark could only cough and wheeze. The two men looked at each other.

"What should we do with him?"

"I don't know. Did you see that vehicle he was in? I've never seen anything like it."

"Me neither." The man knelt down beside Clark, grabbed his hair and jerked his head up. "You got a name, kid…?" His voice trailed off. "My God, he looks just like…"

The second man stared at Clark's face in awe. "What the hell? How is that possible?"

"I don't know." The first man got to his feet. "But I think we'd better take him in."

"Good idea."

Clark didn't even have the strength to resist as the two men hoisted him up by the arms. They lifted him up and carried him with them as they blasted off into the sky.

Clark blinked his eyes as they flew above the deserted city. As they soared high above the buildings, he stared in awe at what he saw below. Most of the city was in ruins, buildings demolished or decaying as if some kind of war had taken place here.

In the center of the city was a giant metallic fortress, almost like a castle. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before, and it filled him with a cold dread.

It was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

When Clark awoke, he was in some kind of cell. It was small, only a few feet wide and not much taller than he was, which he realized as he got wearily to his feet. He looked around at the three metal walls, and the one that appeared to be plexiglass of some sort. As he looked out, he could see that his was just one in a row of cells that filled a very long corridor. It was dark, and in the dim lighting he was unable to tell whether the cells across from him were occupied or not.

He slammed his fist against the glass. To his astonishment, it didn't break. In fact, his hand kind of stung. He stared quizzically at his own hand, then punched the glass again. It still didn't give. It was only then that he noticed that the light in the room had a very strange, intense red color to it.

"So, you're awake," came a familiar voice from the next cell.

"Wells?" Clark asked.

"Indeed. I see you found the time machine."

"Wells, where the hell are we?" Clark yelled, more than a hint of anger seeping into his voice. "And what happened to my powers?"

"Red Sun Lamps," Wells explained. "The lights above your head are filtered to mimic the effects of a red sun, like the one Krypton had. It negates your powers, I'm afraid."

Clark looked up, and saw that the ceiling of his cell was lined with a series of red lights, shining directly down on him. He squinted his eyes and tried to fry the lights with his heat vision, but quickly discovered that power had disappeared along with his strength. Under these lights, he was just a normal human.

"As for where we are," Wells continued, "that may take a bit longer to explain."

"I saw some kind of a fortress when I got here," Clark said, his pre-blackout memories starting to come back to him.

"Yes. We are inside it's dungeon."

"And we're really in the future?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Whose fortress is this?" Clark asked.

Wells was silent.

"I think you owe me an explanation," Clark demanded, his patience running out. "Whose fortress is this?"

Wells let out a long, slow sigh. "It's yours."

Clark froze, and a chill ran down his spine. He didn't say a word.

"Clark?" Wells said, softly.

Clark closed his eyes. "What do you mean, it's mine?" he asked, very slowly.

"I don't know how to tell you this gently, Clark, so I'm afraid I'll just have to say it. In the future, you become a dictator. A tyrant. You use your powers to conquer the earth, and rule it with an iron fist. Those who do not obey you, you imprison, execute or exile. This is your fortress, your castle, from which you reign."

"Then it's true," Clark said, his voice barely a whisper. "It's all true. The prophecy was right."

"What prophecy?"

"In my space ship," Clark said, leaning against the wall of his cell and slowly sliding down it, coming to rest in a sitting position. "There was a message in the ship that brought me to earth, which read, 'On this third planet from the star Sol, you will be a god among men. They are a flawed race. Rule them with strength my son, that is where your true greatness lies.' My father, Jor-El, sent me here to conquer."

"That doesn't make any sense," Wells said, sounding exasperated. "Clark, I told you that I have been to many different realities in which some version of you exists. In every reality that I have seen, besides yours, Jor-El sends you here as a final act of a father's love. Krypton was about to explode, and he placed you in a rocket and sent you to Earth so that you would survive, not so you would conquer. I don't understand how your universe could be so different."

"Well, it is," Clark snapped, his face buried in his hands. "And it looks like I can't escape that destiny."

"Clark, you said that the prophecy came from your space ship. How were you able to read the Kryptonian language?"

"There was an octagonal key that was part of the ship," Clark said, his voice so quiet that Wells had to strain to hear it from his cell. "I placed it in this hole in the wall of one of the caves beneath Smallville, and it kind of… downloaded into me the ability to read the language."

"I've never heard of anything quite like that, in any of my travels in the other realities," Wells said.

Clark got to his feet and banged his fists against the wall that separated his cell from Wells'. "I don't care about any of those other realities, or what happened there! This is my world, and this is my life! So stop comparing it to everything else you've seen!"

"Calm yourself, calm yourself," Wells said, frightened by the sudden outburst. "I can only imagine how traumatic this must be for you. But Clark, you have to understand something. I don't think any of this was supposed to happen. Something, somewhere in time, was deliberately changed, so that this would be the end result."

Clark tried to take deep breaths to slow his breathing. "What do you mean?"

"This was never supposed to be your future. And it doesn't have to be."

"You know more than what you've told me," Clark said.

"I do indeed. Clark, someone wanted this to happen. Someone wanted you to become a conqueror and rule the world, and took very specific measures to make sure that it would happen."

Another voice spoke up, this one from the cell across from Clark's. "It was Tempus, wasn't it?" the voice said.

Clark stared into the darkness of the cell across from his. Only now that his eyes had adjusted did he realize that the same red light was also emanating from that cell. He could make out the shadowy outline of a figure inside, but not in detail.

"Wells, who is that?" Clark asked.

"As I said, Clark, I have been to other realities in which you exist, in some form or another. And, as I also told you, there is one particular version of you that I have spent quite some time with. On more than one occasion, we have encountered a man named Tempus, who has made it his mission in life to prevent the Utopian society of the future."

The man in the cell across from Clark's stepped forward, out of the shadows, so that Clark could see him more clearly. He wore a blue costume with red boots and a cape. On his chest was an emblem containing a letter "S."

"Clark Kent," Wells said. "I'd like you to meet Superman."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Clark stared at the caped figure in the cell across from his. The symbol on his chest was a familiar one. It seemed to be a variation of the mark that Jor-El had burned into his chest before he left for Metropolis.

"Super… Man?" Clark repeated the name Wells had just said. "You're… you're me?" Clark asked.

"In a manner of speaking," Wells answered. "This is the Clark Kent of another world."

Clark raised an eyebrow. "What's with the tights?"

The man called Superman sighed and folded his arms.

"In every other reality that I've come across, Clark, you become a hero," Wells explained. "A savior to the people of Earth. Their champion. Their Superman."

"And that's what I wear?" Clark asked.

"That costume has become a beacon of hope for millions," Wells said. "A symbol for truth and justice."

"Yeah, but… come on," Clark protested.

"Hey," Superman said, looking annoyed. "My mother made me this costume."

Clark tilted his head to the side and looked the blue and red tights up and down. Now that Superman had said that, somehow, he could see his mother making something like that for him.

"All right…" Clark said, still skeptical. "So, what're you doing here?" he asked Superman.

"I was kidnapped and brought here," Superman explained. "I was chasing after a ruthless and violent vigilante called Vixen, who had super speed. When I finally caught up to her, I saw that someone else had gotten to her first… A man, dressed all in black and wearing a symbol like mine on his chest, flew down from the sky and ripped Vixen in two with his bare hands. What I hadn't realized up until that moment was that Vixen was actually some kind of sophisticated robot… she wasn't human."

He paused, shifting his gaze away from Clark.

"The most disturbing thing was, I don't think he realized it either, until after he tore her apart," Superman said solemnly.

"Then what happened?" Clark asked.

Superman sighed, and stared at the floor.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Superman and the man dressed in black stood in a kind of stunned silence for a moment, staring at the pile of circuitry and metal that was once the vigilante known as Vixen. The man held in his right hand a piece of her arm. In his left, part of her leg. Her head lay unceremoniously in the street, staring lifelessly up at them, wires hanging from her open mouth.

The man tossed the remaining metallic body parts to the ground. "Superman, I presume?" he asked.

"Yes, I am. And I don't know if you're aware of just what that symbol on your chest really means," Superman said, noting that the man in black wore a very similar emblem to his own, though his was silver instead of red and yellow.

"I know what this symbol is," the man said. "It's the mark of my ancestors. The family crest of the House of El."

Superman was speechless. He and the man in black circled each other slowly, looking each other up and down. A crowd began to gather in streets, pointing and calling to one another.

"What do you want?" Superman asked.

The man in black held up a small white cube, and slowly turned it over in his hands. He approached Superman, taking two large strides and stopping right in front of him.

"To fulfill my destiny."

He tossed the cube in the air, and it seemed to freeze there for a moment in time. Then the man reared back and punched Superman square in the face, sending the Man of Steel reeling backwards and knocking him off his feet. He hit the ground with a thud, holding his jaw where he'd been hit. He pulled his hand away, only to find blood on his fingers.

Superman was a man who had rarely felt pain, at least not without kryptonite being involved. He didn't get hurt. He didn't bleed. And yet, he had just been floored with one punch, and he was bleeding. People started panicking and running for cover.

The cube expanded into a kind of window, with a strange blue light emanating from it. The man stood in front of it, the blue light casting him in an ominous silhouette.

"Get up," the man said, his voice cold and full of menace.

Superman got to his feet. The man threw another punch, but Superman caught his fist in mid-swing, grabbing it his hand. The man threw his other arm around Superman's neck, holding him in a headlock. The two struggled with each other, thrashing around violently.

The man squeezed tighter around Superman's neck. He took a step backward, pulling Superman with him. Another step, closer to the window of blue light.

"Why…" Superman choked out, trying to pull the man's arm away from his windpipe. "Why… are you… doing this?"

"Because I'm the Last Son."

They both fell backward into the window, as the blue light engulfed them.

The window disappeared, and the two men were gone.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Clark watched Superman as he told the story of the man in black who had brought him to this universe. He noticed with unease that Superman had avoided Clark's eyes the whole time.

"The man who attacked you and brought you here… it was me, wasn't it?" Clark asked.

Superman just stared silently at Clark for a moment, then replied, "Yes."

"Ah, well, rather, it was this future's version of you, my boy," Wells offered.

"I get it," Clark said. "But it's still my fault."

"The fact that your future self has started to affect other realities makes this a very dire situation," Wells said. "If he continues to abduct and imprison the Supermen of other realities, he could extend his reign to other worlds as well."

"So how do we stop him?" Superman asked.

"I don't know," Wells said, his tone grim.

"Wells… I recognized the time window technology that was used to bring me here," Superman said. "Tempus is involved in this somehow, isn't he?"

"Who is this Tempus?" Clark asked.

Wells sighed again. "Tempus is a time-traveling fiend, who comes from the future. Superman and I have crossed paths with him several times. He has devoted himself to preventing the Utopian society that Superman's descendants create, and spreading mayhem in its place."

"Looks like he's done a good job," Clark muttered.

"How did he do this?" Superman asked. "He changed something in the past?"

"Yes. I've had some trouble pinpointing exactly what he's done… it seems he may have changed more than one thing. However, there was… a very significant event, that I was able to pinpoint."

"What was it?" Clark asked.

Wells hesitated. "I'll tell you what I've learned, as best I can…" he said. "But Clark… I think you'd better brace yourself for this."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Clark slowly turned the small crystal over between his thumb and forefinger. It was hard for him to believe that this had once made him sick… Lana Lang's necklace, which used to be made of a piece of kryptonite, had always kept him from getting close to her during their freshman year. Then, somehow, when the necklace had gotten near Clark's spaceship in the storm cellar, the ship neutralized it, turning it from a green, glowing meteor rock into a harmless clear crystal. Ever since that day, Clark had held onto the necklace, never telling Lana what had happened to it.

Then again, there was so much he hadn't told Lana. But tonight, that was all going to change. Tonight, he was going to give the necklace back to her, and tell her everything. He was finally going to let Lana in on the secrets that he'd kept from her for so long. After all they'd been through together, she deserved to know. And what better night than tonight to tell her?

He slipped the necklace back into his pocket, took a deep breath, and waited for his name to be called.

"Clark Jerome Kent."

Clark swelled with pride as he heard the applause ring out. He adjusted his cap and crossed the stage, looking out over the smiling faces of his peers and the enormous crowd of cheering parents. Then Principal Reynolds shook his hand, and handed him that piece of paper he'd worked four years for. Finally, his Smallville High Diploma was his. He had graduated high school.

He walked off the stage, grinning from ear to ear. He'd waited so long for this moment, and now it was official.

Clark waited just off stage for the name to be called that would follow his by just three more students.

"Jessica Ann Konderman. Michael J. Krendler. Charles Ladderman. Lana Marie Lang."

Applause… then an awkward pause.

"Ahem… Lana Marie Lang?"

Silence.

No one crossed the stage.

A few more moments of confused silence. Then, the names continued.

"Judith Renee Lazenby. Matthew James Lindsey."

Clark was confused. Where was Lana? He left the stage, and walked out into the crowd. He walked right past the first group of rows, which were reserved for students, and walked back to where his friend Pete Ross was sitting.

"Pete… have you seen Lana, or my parents? Or Chloe?"

"No," Pete said, looking around. "Haven't you?"

"No."

"Do you think something's wrong?"

"I don't know."

Clark had picked Pete up at the bus station and they had driven to the graduation ceremony together. Lana and Chloe had been helping Jonathan and Martha decorate the Talon for the Smallville High Graduation Celebration coming up that night, and the four of them were all supposed to come together.

Clark and Pete anxiously listened to the names continue.

"Chloe Elizabeth Sullivan."

Applause… then, again, silence. Chloe also did not cross the stage.

Clark and Pete just looked at each other.

"Do what you gotta do, man," Pete said.

Clark walked through the rows of people, looking desperately for his parents, even as the feeling of hopelessness set in. With his super hearing and all of his vison powers, he should be able to pick them out of the crowd in no time. As the seconds turned into minutes, he knew that he was not going to find his parents. They were not in the auditorium.

He tried to keep himself from fearing the worst.

Across town, Lana Lang woke up to feel something wet being poured over her head and down her back. She coughed and gasped and wiped dirt from her eyes and face. The first thing she realized was that she could not feel her legs.

She looked around. She was in the middle of a field. A few yards away, the Kent truck was overturned, lying smashed up and upside down. Twisted metal and broken glass lay scattered like debris on a battlefield.

Now she remembered the truck careening out of control, and Mr. Kent yelling that the brakes had gone out. She remembered Chloe grabbing onto her arm, and going off the road… That was all she remembered. She must have been thrown from the truck when it crashed.

More wetness down her back. She struggled to look up, and saw a man with brown hair wearing a black business suit standing over her. A putrid smell filled her nostrils. She realized what was being poured on her just a split second before she saw the can of gasoline in the man's hand.

"Oh, Miss Lang," the man said. "I was really hoping you would have just died on impact like Chloe and the Kents. I should've known cutting the brake lines would just be far too easy."

Lana tried to talk, but she couldn't stop coughing.

"I really don't want you to take any of this personally. I'm just trying to prevent a dreadfully dull Utopian future. You understand, don't you? Your deaths should be just what it takes to push your friend Clark Kent over the edge."

Lana spat dirt and blood out of her mouth.

"Why…?" she managed to choke out. "Why?"

"Ohhh, that's right," the man said. "He hasn't told you yet, has he? That's a shame. Well, I might as well let you in on a little death-bed secret." The man knelt down right next to Lana. "Clark Kent… is… Superman!"

Lana's eyes revealed her desperate confusion.

"Oh wait, that doesn't mean anything to you, does it?" He smacked himself in the head. "DUH!"

He stood up and emptied the rest of the can of gasoline over Lana's body, then tossed it casually aside. Lana could see the trail of gasoline glistening on the grass, leading all the way back to the overturned truck.

The man took a lighter out of his pocket.

"Trust me, Miss Lang. What I do now, I do for a better tomorrow. But somehow, I doubt that will be of much consolation."

One week later. Clark Kent walked into the Kawache Caves beneath Smallville for the last time. In his hand, he held the octagonal key that so many people had fought over these past few years. Lex. Lionel. Even Dr. Swann. Everyone wanting to know what mysteries could be unlocked in these caves.

Clark knew exactly what they unlocked.

He stopped in front of the keyhole in the cave wall. He fought back the tears. He promised himself he wasn't going to cry any more. He'd made his decision. It was time to accept his destiny.

Trying to steady his shaking hand, he pressed the key into the keyhole. The cave instantly came to radiant life as an intense white light poured forth from the hieroglyphs around the keyhole, filling the entire cave.

"Okay, Jor-El!" Clark yelled. "You win! There's nothing left for me here in Smallville! I'm yours now!"

"Kal-El… My son," the voice boomed, echoing throughout the cave. "You have returned to me at last. Now it is time to begin your journey. I have told you that mankind is a weak and flawed race. With your strength, you will rule them, and your will shall be done here on Earth. Are you ready to begin your conquest, my son?"

Clark heard these words, and knew that this was exactly what he had fought against for so long. What Jor-El wanted to turn him into was exactly what Jonathan and Martha had taught him never to become. And yet, in this last week, his parents and two of his best friends had been taken from him. His world had been shattered. He had nowhere else to turn. What he needed now was his father. His true father.

"Yes. I am ready."

"Very well."

A beam of energy shot out of the cave wall and straight into Clark's chest, surging through every molecule of his body. He would have let out a scream if sound were capable of leaving his mouth at that moment. His jaw hung open and his eyes glowed white as the energy crackled through him, changing him forever.

He was no longer Clark Kent.

"I… I am Kal-El, of Krypton," he said, as the energy dissipated and the power of speech returned to him.

"Go forth, my son. This planet is yours for the taking."

Kal-El's feet lifted off the ground. "Yes, father." He reached his hand out, and the key dislodged itself from the wall, floating right into his palm.

With a burst of speed, Kal-El flew out of the cave, and into the night sky.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Clark sat in stunned silence as Wells finished the story. Superman stared at the ground with his arms folded across his chest. Clark sat on the floor with his legs crossed, hunched forward. Wells looked at the ceiling, clasping his hands behind his back. For several long, agonizing minutes, no one said a word.

"This… Tempus person," Clark finally said, his voice hoarse, trembling. "…he killed my parents, and Lana, and Chloe… all to get me to give in to Jor-El, and conquer the Earth." His breathing was heavy.

"…Yes," Wells said, sorrowfully.

Clark stood up. "Okay. Okay. This… this is all right. All we have to do is go back in time, and stop it from happening. If we go back to right before Tempus killed them, and stop it from happening, then everything will be all right again."

"…No," Wells said.

"What do you mean, 'No'?"

"I already did it, Clark."

"You already did what?"

"I already went back in time, and prevented everything that I just described to you from happening. But, Clark… the future refused to change."

"What do you mean?"

"Just what I said. After I discovered what Tempus had done, I traveled back in time and alerted the authorities to the fact that Tempus was going to attempt to cut Jonathan Kent's brake lines. He was caught in the act, and taken to prison. Your parents and friends lived. Then, I returned here, to the future… only to find that what I had done had made no difference. Everything had turned out exactly the same anyway."

"How is that possible?"

"I'm not sure exactly. But, I have a theory. Do you remember the Temporal Disruption Regulator in my cabin? The device that was hidden inside the face of the grandfather clock, which kept the cabin separate from the influence of all time and space around it?"

"Yes…"

"I believe that Tempus must have created a Disruption Regulator of his own, only he's modified it somehow. Adapted it, so that this entire universe now exists in its own separate timeline. Once he had created this terrible future, he activated the Regulator, thus ensuring that this future would continue to exist, even if the past was changed."

Clap… Clap… Clap. Slow, sarcastic clapping echoed down the hallway of the dungeon. The man with the brown hair and the black business suit slowly emerged from the shadows.

"Bravo, Herb! Bravo! You truly are a man ahead of your time. Though I'm not sure that means much when you're stuck more than a hundred years in the future."

"Tempus," Superman growled.

Clark's eyes went wide with rage. He threw himself at the glass, pounding on it like a madman. "You son of a bitch! You killed my parents! You killed two of my best friends! Why! For what! What did they ever do to you?"

"Ahhh, Clark… what did they ever do, what did they ever do?" Tempus said with an evil smirk. "They loved you, my boy. They filled you with confidence, with hope, with that sickeningly irritating desire to do what's right, and stand up for Truth, Justice, and Mom's Apple Pie. I just couldn't have that. You'd end up like the boob in the cape over here, flying around in a pair of long underwear and saving kittens from trees."

Clark punched the glass again, as if he could somehow punch Tempus right through it.

"Think about it, Clark!" Tempus yelled. "I did you the biggest favor of your life! Without Ma and Pa around, you were finally able to give in to Big Daddy Jor-El, and become the man you were always meant to be. Kal-El of Krypton, the conqueror! The king! You should get down on your knees and thank me for turning you from the world's biggest Boy Scout into the world's biggest Bad Ass!"

"You've gone way too far this time, Tempus," Superman said.

Tempus turned around to face Superman's cell.

"Oh, come off it, Big Blue. This is it! It's over! I won! So stop the posturing for once, hm?" Tempus stood up straight and folded his arms across his chest, mocking Superman. He leaned in close to the glass. "The game is over… and I've got the most powerful being in the entire freaking universe in my corner!"

"In your corner?" Superman asked.

Tempus backed away and held his hand to his chest. "You are speaking to the official Advisor-in-Chief to Lord Kal-El. His 'Right Hand Man,' if you will."

"Egads… Tempus, you fiend!" Wells exclaimed. "Don't you see that you've created a terrible, awful world full of corruption and despair?"

"Of course I do! That's what makes it so fun," Tempus replied.

"I don't care how long it takes, Tempus," Superman said. "We will find a way to get out of here. And we will bring you down."

"Y'know, Supes… I had a feeling you'd say that. And I've been doing some thinking. You do have a hell of a track record for thwarting my evil schemes. And, given a long enough time in that cell, even though it seems impossible, you probably would find some way to escape, and ruin everything. That's why I've decided not to leave you kids locked up any more… I've devised a much more permanent solution."

Tempus held up a metal box, which Clark immediately recognized. Legend said that it was forged from the armor of Saint George, the Dragon Slayer. Tempus opened the box, revealing a large glowing chunk of green kryptonite.

"Harper! Delgado!" Tempus called.

Two men wearing helmets and full body armor stomped down the hall, carrying laser rifles. One entered a passcode into a keypad on the wall, and the glass slid away from the three cells. The first man held a rifle to Wells' temple and hauled him out of his cell. The other grabbed Clark and pulled him close to Tempus, who had already yanked Superman from his cell. Clark and Superman immediately felt the ill effects of the kryptonite, struggling to stay on their feet. Superman clutched his forehead as it throbbed from within, his head feeling light and his vision blurring. Clark's hands burned as his veins turned green and pulsated.

"Isn't it ironic that two men with the powers of gods are rendered weak as baby kittens when they get near a little green piece of home?" Tempus laughed to himself. "Lord, I love this stuff!"

Tempus and the men called Harper and Delgado marched Wells, Clark and Superman down the dank, musty dungeon hallway. There were rows upon rows of cells, but Clark could see now that they were all empty. He silently wondered to himself where all the other prisoners had gone. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. Wells had said something earlier about those who opposed Kal-El being imprisoned, executed or exiled. Where do you exile someone to when you control the entire world?

At the very end of the hallway was a large chamber. Mounted on the far wall of the chamber was what appeared to be a huge ray gun of some sort.

"The Phantom Zone…" Wells gasped.

"Ahhh… someone's read up on their Kryptonian history," Tempus teased. Harper and Delgado led the three prisoners to the center of the chamber, right in front of the ray gun.

"Wells… what's he talking about?" Clark asked.

"Oh, please, allow me," Tempus insisted. "It's an ingenious penal system that your planet came up with. Instead of prisons or executions, the criminals of Krypton were banished to The Phantom Zone. There, you can see and hear everything that takes place in the physical world, but you exist only as a disembodied wraith, unable to interact with the world around you in any shape or form. You become nothing more than a ghost, doomed to an eternity of solitude and loneliness. And you people call me sick and twisted!"

Tempus handed the box with the kryptonite in it to the man called Harper. Then he walked over to the ray gun at the end of the room.

"This device is called the Phantom Zone Projector. It was invented by your father, Jor-El," Tempus explained. "So when you're serving out infinity in your own living hell, remember, you have Daddy Dearest to thank for it." He pulled a lever on the side of the Projector, and it hummed to life. "Any final words, last requests, etcetera?"

Harper closed the box. All eyes in the room turned to him.

"Keep that open, you idiot!" Tempus hissed.

Harper tossed the box on the ground, and smashed the butt of his gun into the side of Delgado's head. Delgado crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"Harper, what the hell are you doing!" Tempus dove for the box, but it was too late. With his powers now returned to him, Superman reacted with super speed, snatching the box away before Tempus could even get close. Harper hoisted Tempus up and delivered a crushing blow across his face, knocking him out.

Clark, Superman and Wells just stared.

"Who are you?" Superman asked.

"My name isn't Harper." The one who had been called Harper reached up and removed the helmet, revealing not a man under the armor, but a woman. Long brown hair fell down around her shoulders, and her eyes were a beautiful icy blue. "I am Diana of Themyscira," she said. "The people call me Wonder Woman."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Diana led Wells, Clark and Superman into another chamber of the fortress. They were now in a large room filled with row upon row of small, translucent spheres, sitting on waist-high pedestals. Each sphere emitted a faint light, which gave the room an eerie, ethereal glow.

"These spheres are a form of Kryptonian technology," Diana explained. "They store holograms of historic events. This was how records were kept on Krypton."

Superman recognized the technology. A similar globe had been in the spaceship that brought him to Earth. It was from this globe that he first learned of Krypton.

Diana turned back for a moment to the three men behind her. She looked back and forth between Clark and Superman. She was not quite sure what to make of that fact that Clark looked so much like the man she knew as Kal-El, or that this man called Superman wore the same emblem that adorned Kal-El's chest.

"I still do not fully understand who you are, travelers," she continued. "But I understand that you are here to help. If that is so, then you should first understand how things got to be this way." She led them past several rows of the globes. "Things were not always like this. Not always so dark, and so grim. Even Kal-El was different at first. When he first formed The League, he claimed he wanted to help mankind, and create a better future for the world. He was driven and determined, but there was still a quiet calm within him. His eyes were full of intensity and intelligence." She stopped before one particular row of globes. She ran her hands over several of them, trying to feel which one was the right one. "I even came to love him," Diana said.

She gently lifted one of the globes off its pedestal, and cradled it in both hands. She raised it up and the light spilled onto her face, reflecting in her blue eyes.

"Once we formed The League, we had all but rid the world of crime and violence," Diana continued. "We saw ourselves as leaders, but some felt otherwise. Some saw us as a threat. Some did not want us." She held the globe high above her head. "It had been years since anyone had attempted a terrorist attack on a large scale. Then, one fateful, terrible day… everything fell apart."

The globe glowed brighter, until its light filled the entire chamber. Diana, Wells, Clark and Superman watched as history played out before their eyes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Some of the passengers on the plane couldn't help but scream. Others cowered silently in their seats, slinking down as far as they could, as if they could somehow disappear from this horrible scene. Many prayed. Most cried. All were terrified.

The pilot and copilot lay dead on the cabin floor. Two men, terrorists from the Eastern European nation of Pokolistan, had taken control of the plane. They had redirected its course, and it was now headed straight for the Statue of Liberty. The plane was now just a few more agonizing moments away from a horrible, fiery end that would surely kill everyone on board, destroying an icon of freedom in the process.

Suddenly, the plane shook violently and was thrown to one side. There was a loud wrenching sound, like the tearing of metal. The plane was cast wildly off course. The passengers' screaming grew louder as the plane was thrown back to the other side, and they heard once again the screeching sound of metal being ripped apart.

The terrorists burst out of the cabin, and looked out the side windows. To their astonishment, the plane no longer had wings. The terrorists, and any passenger who wasn't buckled in, went tumbling to the ground as the plane flew into a nosedive, heading straight down towards New York Harbor. The plane hit the water with a thunderous splash, the entire plane shaking.

The side of the plane ripped open like a tin can, and water began to gush in. The panicking passengers began to run for the back of the plane, as the water quickly filled the submerged front half. A man burst in through the opening in the side of the plane. Through the spraying water, all that was clearly visible of the black-clad figure was the silver "S" on his chest, and the glowing red fire in his eyes.

The plane was now almost completely full of water. The terrified passengers struggled to keep their heads high enough to take in precious gulps of oxygen. The figure in black moved through the water effortlessly, and walked to the front of the plane where the two terrorists frantically tried to find an air pocket. Now it was their turn to be afraid.

In one deft motion, the man in black placed his hands on the ceiling of the plane and pushed, his feet lifting off the ground. The plane rose up out of the Harbor, water quickly draining back out through the opening. The passengers breathed in huge gasps of air as their breathing room returned to them.

The plane soared high into the air once more, not by its own accord but through the power of the man in black. Then, with one hand, he grabbed one of the terrorists by the drenched collar of his soaking wet shirt. In an instant, the man flew out of the plane, dragging the terrorist with him. The plane filled once more with terrified screams as it plummeted back towards the Harbor.

High up in the sky, the terrorist began chanting a prayer in his native Pokolistan language.

"You want to pray to someone?" the man known as Kal-El said. "You pray to me."

Kal-El's heat vision burned into the terrorist's flesh. He screamed in agony as he was literally set aflame. Then, from 50 miles straight up, Kal-El dropped him and let him plummet down through the air.

The plane's rapid descent toward the Harbor was stopped suddenly as Kal-El repositioned himself beneath the plane, once again pushing it back high into the sky through his sheer force of will. He flew higher and higher with it, before he, again, darted back inside the plane and grabbed the second terrorist. Then, he allowed the plane to fall again, spiraling back towards the Harbor.

Kal-El flew the second terrorist even higher into the sky. Higher and higher, he watched as the man's face turned blue and he gasped and clawed at the air, the oxygen becoming thinner and thinner at the higher altitude.

"You are a weak, flawed race," Kal-El said. "I offer you peace. I offer you protection. I see now that I've been far too easy on you. I've been going about this all wrong. In a world free from crime, you still try to kill each other. Fine. You can follow me, or you can burn in Hell."

Again, Kal-El let loose with a blast of his heat vision, setting the terrorist's flesh ablaze. This time, instead of dropping him, he hurled him upwards with all his might, sending the man out into the cold empty vacuum of space. Then, Kal-El shot back down to Earth, snagging the plane just seconds before it would have struck the water once again. He flew the plane over to dry land, and set it down, gently.

Before the petrified passengers could even begin to disembark the plane and try to figure out what had happened, Kal-El was gone, returning to the sky. It was time for him to begin the work that must be done, the work that was long overdue.

Only a few hours later. The people of Pokolistan knew something was wrong long before they saw him. The air turned cold, and a feeling of unexplainable dread passed over the land. No one knew what was wrong, only that something did not feel right.

Then, they saw him, up in the sky. The black figure on the horizon, carrying his heavy load. People pointed and cried out, scattering and running for their homes. He quickly grew larger, drawing closer at an alarming rate. Soon it became quite clear what they were seeing. It was Kal-El, leader of The League, Last Son of Krypton. Across his shoulders he carried a huge ray gun.

He fired it for the first time when he was still miles away from the village. A group of men vanished before they even had time to run. Full-fledged panic set in now. He had come for them. This was the end. Another blast from the ray gun, and another group of people disappeared. His heat vision tore houses apart, so he could get to those inside. No one could hide from him. He would get them all. Men. Women. Children.

He would send everyone who lived in Pokolistan to the Phantom Zone.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

The scene that the globe displayed for them shifted. Now, they saw Kal-El in some kind of throne room, which must have been elsewhere within the fortress. He stood with his hands folded behind his back, staring out at Metropolis below him through a giant plate-glass window.

Diana quietly appeared in the doorway of the throne room. She watched him silently for a few moments, feeling a wave of sorrow wash over herself.

"Kal," she said, finally.

"Diana," he replied, his voice devoid of emotion, never taking his eyes away from the city.

She approached him slowly, cautiously. "We need to talk," she said. "What you've done… what you did in Pokolistan. You crossed a line, today, Kal."

"I did what needed to be done."

"You exiled everyone in Pokolistan to the Phantom Zone. Surely you can't believe that they were all terrorists. There were women, children…"

"No. They were not all terrorists," Kal replied. "What were we going to do, Diana? How were we going to weed them out? Send Bruce over there to interrogate everyone, one by one? Those that weren't terrorists were helping to harbor them. The end result is that Pokolistan is no longer a threat to the world."

"The rest of the League does not condone your actions, Kal. Neither does the President. You've caused quite a problem for the United States. All kinds of international treaties have been broken. This is being considered an act of war."

"The United States? The President? We don't answer to them."

"When we formed The League, we agreed to work with the governments of the world."

"Because that was what was most convenient at the time. The old governments are now antiquated and unnecessary. We are the government now. The world answers to us, and to us alone."

Diana stood in stunned silence. "I can't believe I'm hearing this," she said at last. "Where is this coming from, Kal?"

"We have been way too soft, Diana," Kal-El replied. "It's partly my fault. I thought that once we established our power, the world would just fall in line. But we let our guard down. We have to show the world that defiance of our rule will not be tolerated."

"Kal, you are speaking like a dictator!" Diana put her hand on his shoulder. "I thought we stood for the same things! Liberty, and peace, and justice!"

"The world will have all those things, Diana. If they follow my rule, and obey me, then I will give them liberty. I will give them peace. I will give them justice."

"Kal, will you turn around and look at me!" Diana cried out, exasperated.

He finally pulled his attention away from the window, and slowly turned to face Diana.

"What has happened to you?" she asked, her voice a hushed whisper. "I don't understand how the man I fell in love with could come to think like this, to act like this."

He was silent for a moment. "What I don't understand, Diana," he said finally, his eyes slowly looking her up and down, stopping to linger on her golden chest plate and star spangled tights, "is why a woman who came to 'Man's World' to end the oppression of women, dresses like such a whore."

She gasped, and slapped him. Her hand stung.

In one smooth motion, he backhanded Diana across the face, sending her flying across the room. She landed flat on her back, hard.

"How could you!" she cried, her hand wiping blood away from her lip. "I'm--!" She stopped herself.

"Go ahead," Kal said. "Say it. You're pregnant."

Her jaw dropped. "How… how did you know?"

He pointed to his ear. "I can hear the child moving inside your womb."

"You knew I was pregnant, and you still hit me!"

"I wouldn't worry about the child, Diana," Kal said. "I have a feeling he comes from very strong genes."

"You son of a bitch," Diana hissed at him, narrowing her eyes. "What the hell happened to you!"

"I lost my focus," Kal said, slowly walking over to her. "It took a crisis like what happened today to bring everything back to me. My father's will for me was to rule this planet. So far, I haven't done a good enough job. That's going to change, starting now. Anyone who opposes me will be killed or exiled. And that includes you and the rest of the damn League."

He stood above her, towering over her.

"So which is it, Diana? Are you with me, or are you against me?"

She delivered a sharp kick to his stomach, which staggered him for a moment, and leapt to her feet. Clenching her fists, she assumed a battle stance.

"We had hoped it wouldn't come to this," came a voice from the shadows. A man dressed in black, wearing a long, flowing cape stepped forward. A cowl with two devil-like horns covered his head. The symbol of a bat adorned his chest.

"Bruce," Kal said. He cursed himself for not noticing his presence. Bruce was the only one who was ever able to get the drop on Kal's super senses. "What the hell are you…?"

On his arms, Bruce wore two giant, glowing green gloves.

"They're kryptonite gloves," Bruce replied, answering Kal's unfinished question. "You'd be surprised how hard this stuff is to synthesize. Unfortunately I didn't have enough to make nails or a cross."

"So this is how it is," Kal said. He sighed. "So be it."

With a burst of super speed, he drove his shoulder into Bruce's chest, knocking him back against the wall. Bruce gasped as the air was completely knocked out of him. The impact would have broken every bone in his body, if not for the armor that he wore beneath his costume.

Kal wrapped his hands around Bruce's throat, choking him. Bruce pried at Kal's grip, trying to get him to release the chokehold. The veins in Kal's hands turned green and began to throb as the kryptonite gloves made contact with his flesh. The burning sensation seared his skin, and he winced with pain.

Suddenly, Kal was yanked back, and found his arms pinned to his sides. He looked down to see that he'd been snared by a golden lasso. He jerked his head around and glared at Diana, who held the other end of the lariat tight between her hands.

Wham! Bruce let loose with a strong right to Kal's chin, then followed through with the left to the side of his head. The kryptonite dug into him, drawing blood. Bruce sunk another punch into Kal's stomach, nearly knocking him off his feet. An uppercut to the chin. A jab to the stomach. The beating was merciless and unrelenting.

Kal fell to his knees. Bruce placed his left hand on top of Kal's head, and drew back his right. Then he followed through, hard, driving his fist into Kal's face. He crumpled to the ground.

Bruce placed a foot on Kal-El's chest. "Step down, Kal. You have no place as the head of The League any more."

"You idiot," Kal sputtered, his face a mess of cuts and bruises. "I AM the damn League. I don't need any of you!" With a roar, he summoned all his strength, snapping the golden lasso and throwing Bruce off his him with a sweep of his hand. He got to his feet, wiping the blood away from his face as he rose. He began to walk towards Bruce, who was just picking himself up off the floor.

Diana grabbed Kal's arm. "Kal, stop this!" she cried. "This is insane!"

"Don't touch me." He grabbed the back of her head, his fingers gripping her brown hair, and shoved her violently to the ground.

Diana, enraged, let loose the warrior instincts inside of her, ingrained within her since her childhood on Themyscira. She lunged at Kal-El, her fists flying. She spun around and drove her heel into his chest, then followed through with a karate chop to his face. Even if Kal had been at full strength, Diana had always been a close match for him physically. Now, weakened by the kryptonite, he could barely stand up to her onslaught.

As she swung her leg around to deliver another kick, he grabbed her leg in mid-air. He gave a primal yell as he threw her across the room, sending her crashing into the wall.

Bruce leapt from the shadows and began pummeling Kal in the face with the kryptonite gloves. "I never trusted you," Bruce said through clenched teeth. "Not for a minute. I started synthesizing kryptonite the day I met you."

"Looks like neither of us could be trusted, then," Kal grunted, grabbing Bruce's arm between his two hands and holding it back. The pain of the kryptonite touching his flesh was almost unbearable.

Bruce reached for his belt and pulled out a small rectangular device. He held it beside Kal's head, and pushed a button. An explosion of sound blared out of the device, playing havoc with Kal-El's super hearing. The windows shattered and Kal screamed in pain, falling to his knees and throwing his hands over his ears.

The ringing in Kal's ears drowned out all other sound in the room. Bruce was saying something about the high frequency being inaudible to anyone but him, but Kal couldn't hear it. He clenched his teeth and held his ears and waited for the ringing to fade.

Bruce delivered another crushing blow to Kal's face, then another to the side of the head. In a rage, Kal jumped to his feet, blood streaming from his ears, and clasped his hands on either side of Bruce's face. Then, he rammed his head right into Bruce's forehead, and tossed him to the ground like a rag doll.

"I've been holding back, Bruce," Kal yelled, his voice thundering as he had to yell to hear himself above the ringing in his ears. "I don't want to kill you. I once considered you my friend. I thought you were like me… I thought you understood." He hoisted Bruce up off the ground. "But I will kill you if I have to."

He lifted Bruce high into the air, and then threw him clear across the room. His armor, as well as several of his bones, shattered on impact. One of the kryptonite gloves split clear in two and fell off his arm. He struggled to get up, but he was having trouble feeling his legs.

Kal wobbled over to where Bruce lay, having trouble keeping his balance, in part from his popped eardrums and in part from the effects of the kryptonite beating he'd just taken.

"Giving up yet, Bruce?" he asked.

"No." Bruce reached for his belt, and took out a small communicator device. "Just calling in the sub." He pressed a button on the device.

If Kal had retained his super hearing, he would have heard him coming from miles away. As it was, he barely noticed the gust of wind a microsecond before he felt the impact. He had just enough time to turn and see the orange and yellow blur streak into the room before he felt the fists fly across his face. He was hit by a barrage of hundreds of attacks before he could even raise his arm to block one of them.

"Bart," Kal said. "Or Wally. Or whatever you're calling yourself these days." It took all the strength he had to summon his super speed, and start to block the punches as they came at him. As he shifted into super speed mode, the image of the man before him became clear, and was no longer just a blur. Before him was the young man that he'd known as Bart Allen, wearing his trademark orange and yellow jumpsuit.

"Hey, Clark," Bart said, still throwing punches at his face, chest and stomach.

"My name is Kal-El," he replied, struggling to block each one as it came. When Bart did manage to connect, it stung. Normally, he would not have felt a thing, but in his weakened state, a punch at this velocity definitely resonated.

"Whatever, man… I know all about name changes, you know that already," Bart said. "What happened to that farm boy I met in Smallville? When we first met, I was using my powers to steal from people. You were the one who told me that I should use my powers for good, and help others! I thought that was the whole reason we started The League!"

"I was young and naïve then!" Kal yelled. "I was meant to rule this world, Bart! You can either stand beside me, or get the hell out of my way!"

Kal picked up speed, and began to overpower Bart. He was now blocking all of Bart's punches, and even getting in a few of his own. Bart turned and ran, and zipped around behind Kal and started punching him in the back. By the time Kal was able to turn around again, Bart had sped around behind him again.

"I always was faster than you, slow poke!" Bart taunted.

"Oh yeah?" Kal darted away from Bart in a burst of speed, and ran all the way around the room, building up momentum. Then he plowed himself right into Bart, driving him straight towards the wall. At the last moment, Bart slipped away and ran all the way around the room himself, trying the same trick on Kal. As he approached, he wound up and punched Kal square in the jaw twelve times. Kal ferociously shot back with a punch to Bart's chest that sent him flying backwards. When Bart caught himself, he continued to run around the room, trying to sneak up behind Kal again. Before he could get close, Kal darted away. The two began to race around the room, darting at each other every few seconds to try to land a few punches, and then zipping away again.

To Bruce and Diana, the room was overtaken by a gale force wind with the strength of a hurricane. It was all they could do to grab onto whatever was nailed down and hold on as tightly as they could, as the room was torn apart by an orange and black tornado.

Within the whirlwind, Kal and Bart continued to clash, their movements almost like a choreographed dance as they came at each other over and over again. Each time, the shockwaves from their punches grew more powerful as their speed increased, and the ground beneath them started to shake. The whole fortress was in danger of being ripped apart.

Finally, Kal landed a crushing blow to Bart's jaw, shattering it. His head twisted around, nearly snapping his neck. Bart hit the ground with a crash so powerful that it ripped a crack across the floor. He twitched at super speed, his features a blur.

"You may be faster than me," Kal said. "But you're not stronger. Did you really think you could beat me?"

"N-No…" Bart managed to sputter as he shook. "J-J-Just d-d-distract y-you…"

Suddenly Kal felt his arms pinned violently behind his back, his head was forced down and his knees buckled beneath him. It was only then that he noticed a faint green light around him that was growing stronger and brighter by the second. Though he couldn't move his head, he rolled his eyes upward to see that he was encircled by a group of men in green and black costumes, all with their outstretched arms pointing straight at him. Each of them wore a green ring.

They'd called in the damn Green Lantern Corps.

Some of them Kal recognized… Jordan… Rayner… Stewart… even Gardner. Some of them, he didn't. Some of them didn't even look human. He knew the Corps spanned many different planets. He wondered if the big one was the one they called Kilowogg. In all, there were about a dozen of them, all with their rings pointing at him, shooting out beams of green light that, at present, had him completely immobilized.

"Well," the Green Lantern known as Hal Jordan said, his tone grim. "We've got him... Now what the hell do we do with him?"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Kal-El struggled to move as the green force field gripped him tighter, binding his arms firmly behind him and keeping him on his knees.

"Now what the hell do we do with him?" Hal Jordan asked, as he and the other Green Lanterns continued to channel the beams of energy from their rings into the force field.

Bruce had managed to pull himself up into a sitting position, but he still couldn't feel his legs. "We need to call in the mystics," he said. "Kal has a vulnerability to magic. Call Dr. Fate, Zatanna, Jason Blood…"

"I say we just send him to that damn Phantom Zone that he sent the people of Pokolistan to," Guy Gardner said. "He don't deserve no better'n what he did to them."

Diana knelt down next to Bart Allen, holding his hand in hers as she tried to soothe him, his super-speed convulsions only now beginning to slow. "It doesn't have to come to that, Guy," Diana quickly replied to Gardner's suggestion.

Gardner snorted. "You would say that. Look, Diana, just because you two were--"

She shot him a glare that shut him up before he could finish the thought. "Hold your tongue, Guy Gardner, if you know what's good for you."

"Guy may have a point, as much as I hate to admit it," replied John Stewart. "Kal has proven himself to be unstable, dangerous. We can't take any risks. He's far too powerful to take any chances with. Either the Phantom Zone or execution by kryptonite may be our best options."

Diana stood. "I can't believe I'm hearing this! You would be willing to kill him!"

"Go ahead and do it, then!" Kal snarled. "If you've got the guts, then kill me! It's what you're going to have to do, because if I get the chance, I'm going to kill every single one of you!"

Be quiet, Kal-El. Calm yourself. A voice, within his mind, that no one else could hear. The Martian. He was in his head, trying to silence his thoughts.

Get the hell out of my head, J'onn! Kal screamed back in his mind, fighting the intrusion.

J'onn J'onzz, The Martian Manhunter, stepped forward from behind the group of Green Lanterns. "His mind is a turmoil of rage. I have never seen anything like it," he said. "I am trying to quell his anger, but it is of no use. It is too strong."

"Please," Diana said. "There must be some option that we can agree on other than killing him."

"I side with Diana," Bruce said, using a pile of debris to pull himself to his feet. He still couldn't feel his legs, but he'd be damned before he'd remain seated for a debate such as this. "The mystics should be able to strip him of his powers. Then he'll just be an ordinary man, and no longer dangerous."

"How can we be sure of that?" Stewart replied. "What if the mystics fail, or if he finds some way to get his powers back? I'm not convinced that he wouldn't still be a threat, and it's not a chance I'm willing to take."

"I agree with John Stewart," Hal said. "I don't like it, but I don't believe we can safely keep Kal-El alive. It's either the Phantom Zone, or execution by kryptonite." Several of the other Lanterns nodded in agreement.

"Then you're just as bad as he is," Bruce said. "You're willing to commit the same acts that you've condemned him for."

"No, Bruce," Hal said. "He sent innocent men, women and children to a fate worse than death. Innocent people who had nothing to do with that terrorist attack, who were minding their own business, living their lives in Pokolistan. We're talking about the difference between what he did to innocent civilians, and what we should do to rid the world of a dangerous threat. It's not the same at all."

Diana stood in front of Kal.

"If you want to kill him… then you'll have to kill me, too."

The Green Lanterns all exchanged glances.

"Diana, stand down," Stewart barked.

"You do not command me, John Stewart. I am Diana of Themyscira, Princess of the Amazons, and I answer to no one."

"Careful, Wonder Woman," Guy Gardner scoffed. "You're starting to sound like Kal."

Diana's eyes narrowed and she clenched her fists.

"J'onn," Hal said. "Remove Diana please."

J'onn lifted up off the ground and floated across the room to Diana, and gently waved his hand across her face. Sleep, child, he thought, his quiet command slipping into her unconscious thoughts. She fought it, but not hard enough. She fell limp into J'onn's arms. He picked her up and carried her towards the door.

"Contact Ted Kord," Hal added. "We'll need his scientific expertise to help us figure out how to operate the Phantom Zone Projector."

"Jordan, you son of a bitch," Bruce hissed. "We are not all in agreement on this!"

"Relax, Bruce," Hal said. "We just need to be prepared, should that option arise. No one is saying that's what we're definitely going to do. But we can't just stand around here debating this forever, either."

Kal had stopped struggling against his force field restraints. Instead, he watched his captors intently. Hal stood poised, authoritative. John was focused, never taking his gaze off of Kal. Guy had a smirk that wouldn't leave his lips, he was enjoying every minute of this. The only one that seemed distracted was Kyle Rayner. The youngest of the Lanterns. He kept looking over at Bart, to see if he was all right. Kyle and Bart had been good friends ever since they joined the League, and the sight of the young Flash bleeding and convulsing on the ground was more than Kyle could handle.

"Oh, no," Kal said.

Everyone stopped their arguing, and looked at Kal. There was something in his voice they had not heard in a long time. It sounded like concern. It gave them pause.

"What is it, Kal?" Hal Jordan asked.

"It's Bart. He… he's fading fast. I can hear it, it's his heart. It's about to give out. The seizures, his, his heart can't take much more of it. He's going to die any second now."

Kyle flinched. "Bart…" he whispered his good friend's name. The beam emanating from his ring flickered.

It was all Kal needed. In that split second, the force field weakened, just enough for him to let loose a blast of heat vision from his eyes. The powerful rays tore through the force field and blew Kyle's hand right off. He screamed and fell to the ground, clutching the stump where his hand had been moments before.

The other Green Lanterns panicked. The only two who managed to stay focused were Hal Jordan and John Stewart, but their willpower was not enough to sustain the force field against Kal's anger. In a fit of rage, Kal burst into the air, flying across the room and plowing into the dozen or so men that had been imprisoning him. His eyes glowed red as he fired off more blasts of his heat vision, slicing the ring fingers off of each of the Green Lanterns. They screamed as their fingers, rings and all, fell to the ground.

The Lanterns were all on their knees as Kal towered over them. Some groped around on the floor, trying to find their lost rings.

"Looking for these?" Kal asked. He raised his hands, to reveal that he now sported a Green Lantern ring on each and every finger. He clenched his fists, and green energy sizzled and crackled around his hands. He let out a primal scream, and released a blast of energy that tore through the room, ripping several of the Green Lanterns in half. He shot forth another bolt that tore the head off of Guy Gardner. Another sliced John Stewart in two. Another punched a hole through Hal Jordan's stomach.

"Kal, stop it!" Bruce yelled. "You're killing your own teammates!"

"Bruce," Kal said, pulling in the bolts of energy. The aura around his hands sparked and fizzled. "Thanks for sticking up for me. Trying to convince them not to kill me." He slowly crossed the room, until he was right next to Bruce, who was still struggling to keep himself propped up with his hands. "You always were a real… 'stand-up' guy." He gave Bruce a slight shove, and he fell to the ground, his deception giving way.

"Burn in Hell, alien," Bruce hissed. He ripped two small explosives from his belt, and hurled them right into Kal's face. They blew up, releasing a green gas. More Kryptonite. Kal gasped and coughed, trying to fan the poison gas away from his face.

Kal poured out another blast from his hands, frying Bruce where he lay.

He fell to his knees, coughing and spitting out blood, fanning the kryptonite gas away from his face. He managed to use the rings to dispel most of the gas fairly quickly.

Then, he heard it. A faint whistling in the distance, at first. He could feel it almost as soon as he heard it. He thought it was still the gas at first, but that was almost completely gone already. No, this was much worse. They had really done it, this time.

He slowly rose to his feet. His vision powers confirmed what he already knew. He couldn't help but laugh, in spite of himself. The bastards. So this was how far they were willing to go.

Washington DC. The White House. Only a few minutes later.

President Luthor stood behind his Oval Office desk, pouring himself a glass of brandy. Dressed in a white suit, he wore a single black glove on his right hand. He took a slow sip as he waited for the news to come.

There was a knock at the door, and the Vice President stuck his head in the room.

"You don't need to knock, Pete," Lex said, trying to force a smile.

"Sir, we've just received word," Vice President Pete Ross replied, his tone grim. "The mission was a failure. The target survived."

Lex closed his eyes. "How?" he asked, his voice completely devoid of emotion. "How did he survive a nuclear missile laced with kryptonite?"

"Our satellites show that some kind of a green force field appeared around his fortress, just moments before impact. We believe he may have acquired one or more Green Lantern rings and used them to construct a barrier."

Lex sighed and rubbed his forehead. He sat down at his desk, wearily, and leaned back in his chair. "You know what this means, don't you?" he said, at last.

"Sir?"

"Pete… Do you remember that day, years ago, in Smallville, when I saved your life? An agent working for my father was about to beat you to death, because he was trying to get to Clark through you."

"Of course I remember, Lex," Pete said. "I'd be dead if you hadn't showed up and stopped him."

"I told you that day that, when the time came, you would be able to repay me," Lex said. "Well, today is the day. I want you to take my wife, get in the helicopter and get her as far away from here as possible."

"But, Lex, I…"

"Pete, please. Just do it. If he really survived, then he'll be here any minute now. I know what he'll do to me. I just want to know that she'll be safe. Please, just take care of Lois."

Pete nodded. "Of course, Lex."

A sonic boom rang out in the distance.

"Go now, Pete," Lex said. As Pete hurried out of the room, Lex closed his eyes again and folded his hands in front of him. Nothing to do now but wait for the inevitable.

Another sonic boom, this one much closer. A third, which shook the White House like a clap of thunder.

Cracks started running up the walls of the Oval Office, and across the ceiling. Bits of plaster and cement fell onto Lex's desk. He didn't bother brushing them off. There was a loud creaking sound as the ceiling was literally lifted up off of the walls, tipping back as if it were the lid on a hinged box. As it rose up from the wall, Kal-El was revealed, fire burning in his eyes and green energy crackling from his hands. Rain poured down around him, showering down into the Oval Office.

Lex just stared at Kal-El, silently, letting the rain wash over his face.

Kal savagely threw back the roof, flipping it wide open. Then he leapt down into the room, landing right beside Lex. He hoisted the President up by the lapels of his suit jacket.

"Hello, Clark," Lex said, dryly.

"You know that isn't my name any more."

"Fine. If you insist… Kal-El. I know you're here to kill me. Let me just say one thing first. I know you remember the legend of Naman and Sageeth. The legend that the Kawache people told for generations. They believed that you were the great Naman, their savior, and that the evil Sageeth would turn against you and try to destroy you."

The energy around Kal's hands began to radiate outward and wrap itself around Lex Luthor. Kal let go of Lex's lapels, and let the swirling green energy raise Lex up off the ground.

"I remember the legend," Kal said.

"Do you also remember the night that I came to your loft, in Smallville, and told you my interpretation of it? I said that someone as powerful as Naman could try to rule the world if he wasn't kept in check, and that anyone who would dare to oppose him would be the real hero. I believed that Sageeth was the hero of the story."

A tendril of green energy wrapped itself around Lex's throat.

"Get to the point," Kal said.

"Look at yourself, Clark! Look what you've become! You are the villain of the story, not the savior! My interpretation of the legend was right!"

"So you're the hero, Lex?" Kal-El asked, bitterly. "The nuclear warhead you sent to kill me just wiped out everyone in Metropolis. That doesn't sound very heroic to me, Sageeth."

With a gesture of his hand, Kal tightened the green noose around Lex's neck. He began to cough and gag.

"I should just kill you right now," Kal said. "But I'm going to give you one last chance. Join me, Lex Luthor. With your brains and my brawn, we could rule this world so easily. No one would stand a chance against us."

Lex spat at Kal-El. "N… N… Never," he managed to choke out.

With a wave of his hand, Kal snapped Lex's neck. He crumpled to the ground, dead.

Kal stood there for a few minutes, watching as the rain poured down onto the body of the man he had once called his friend. Then, somberly, he ascended into the sky once more.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

It was at this point that the hologram fizzled out and disappeared, and the globe that Diana held aloft ceased to glow. She gently returned it to the pedestal.

Clark felt like he'd been punched in the gut. The man that he'd just watched commit all those atrocities… murdering friends and teammates… it was him. A twisted, future version of himself, yes, but him nonetheless. Wells and Superman eyed Clark carefully, not sure how the boy was going to handle what he had just witnessed.

"It was at this point that Tempus first came to Kal-El, and offered his assistance," Diana explained. "He told Kal-El that he was a time traveler, and that he could help him by warning him in advance of any potential threats to his reign over Earth. Kal was reluctant at first, but eventually accepted Tempus's aid, and made him his Chief Advisor. It was with Tempus's help that Kal created a computer program, called Brainiac, that they equipped with time-travel capabilities. It was Brainiac that chronicled the history of the world on these globes. All of human history is recorded here."

"Diana," Superman spoke up. "In what we just watched, you were pregnant…"

"More than year has passed since then," Diana said. "I went into hiding, and delivered the child. He is safe." Before they could ask her to elaborate, she started to walk out of the room. "Come… there is more I must show you."

The three men followed Diana out of the room, and down another hallway.

"Tempus convinced Kal that the threats to his rule would come from other realities," Diana continued. "Other versions of himself, called Supermen. That's when Kal began invading other realities, killing or imprisoning the Supermen of other universes."

She led them into another room. It looked like they were in a museum. Weapons, costumes, and artifacts were displayed in large cases or mounted on walls.

"What is this place?" Superman asked.

"It is his Trophy Room," Diana said. "He saves the weapons of those he vanquishes. The key to defeating him may lie somewhere in here."

Clark, Wells and Superman walked somberly through the rows of artifacts, knowing that many had come from those who had died trying to overthrow Kal-El. They recognized the costume of the man from the hologram, the one they had called Bruce, with the bat symbol on the chest and the horned cowl. It was singed and burnt. Bart Allen's bloody Flash costume hung nearby. Another case held a giant pair of wings and a mace. Then a blue suit with yellow, bug-like goggles. A gold suit of armor that looked like something out of the far future. An orange and green wetsuit. An emerald archer's uniform. Row upon row of Green Lantern rings.

Then there was a row of blue and red costumes that looked very much like the one that Superman wore. They knew that these must have belonged to those Supermen from the other realities that Kal had killed. Even though they had never met these other men, they were all a part of them, and they both felt a tremendous sense of loss.

Clark turned around and saw another case, filled with objects which were more familiar to him. Some of them were items that he recognized from Lex Luthor's collection. One of the Nicodemus plants. A parasite from the Kawache caves. Kal-El must have taken them for his own trophy room after he killed Lex. Some of the other artifacts, though, were things that had never belonged to anyone but him. His old journals with drawings of the Kryptonian symbols. The map of the caves. Kyla's bracelet. One of the red kryptonite class rings. Even the octagonal key was displayed here.

Superman found a row of cases containing artifacts that he recognized as well, which Kal must have pillaged from his reality. Jason Trask's Bureau 39 files. One of Lenny Stoke's sonic devices. Some of Winslow Schott's Space Rats. The Prankster's freeze-camera. Jaxon Xavier's virtual reality helmet. An assortment of Bad Brain Johnson's electronic gadgets. The remains of the Vixen android.

Clark started to feel weak as he walked down the row towards the back wall of the museum. He soon understood why. He gasped as he saw the last relic in this case. It was a handful of the kryptonite bullets, and the sniper rifle that Van McNulty had used to try to kill him back in Smallville.

"Is that what I think it is?" Wells asked, startled. "Why would he keep something like that around?"

"He must think no one would be crazy enough to break in here and use it against him," Superman said.

Diana frowned. Then, quietly, she opened the case, and picked up the gun. "I know that I was the leading voice against killing Kal-El when we had the chance before," she said. "Then I saw what he did to our own teammates. Bruce… Hal… Bart… they were all my dear friends." She gently loaded the bullets into the gun. "Since then, Kal has only gotten worse, killing anyone who dares to speak out against him. I realize now that we have no choice." She cocked the loaded gun.

Clark stepped forward. "Here," he said, taking the gun from Diana's hands. "Let me handle this," he said.

"Dear boy," Wells said. "Are you sure you're up for this? You understand what you're about to do, don't you?"

"Trust me," Clark said. "I know exactly what I'm doing."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

"I know exactly what I'm doing," Clark said, holding up the sniper rifle. "Using this is a last resort. That… that monster, who calls himself Kal-El… whether he is a future version of me, or whatever he is… the difference between me and him is that he's a killer, and I'm not. That's what separates us. He kills. I don't. We only use this gun if absolutely necessary, and even then, we use it to wound him, not to kill him. Is that understood?"

"Absolutely," Superman said in agreement.

"So we lose, then," Diana said. "You said it yourself. He is a killer, and we are not. If we engage him in battle, he will destroy us. He won't hesitate to deliver the killing blow to each and every one of us."

"It may not come to that," Superman said. "I have an idea. Wells, you said earlier that this reality must be being sustained by some variation of your Temporal Disruption Regulator, correct?"

"Indeed," Wells said. "It's the only way to explain it. I went back in time and prevented Tempus from murdering young Clark's family and friends, and yet the future refused to change. The only possible explanation is that Tempus created some type of Regulator to keep this reality from being altered once he'd established it."

"Well then," Superman continued. "It stands to reason that Tempus would want that Regulator to be kept somewhere that it would be as safe as possible, and where he would still have access to it. I'd be willing to bet that it's somewhere in this Fortress."

"Of course!" Wells exclaimed.

"And if we could find it, and destroy it…" Clark began.

"Then the time stream would fix itself, and this twisted future would never have occurred," Superman finished.

"Ingenious! But a Regulator powerful enough to sustain this entire reality would have to be enormous," Wells said, adjusting his glasses. "As big as a football stadium, maybe even larger. Perhaps there is some kind of sub-basement?"

Superman's x-ray vision quickly confirmed Wells' guess. "I can see it. It's underground, a few levels below where we are now."

"Then we should hurry," Diana said. "Let's get down there before…" She trailed off as she noticed that both Clark and Superman had turned their heads toward the door.

"Someone's coming," they said in unison.

Diana closed her eyes and bowed her head. "Hera, help us," she said softly. "It's him."

The door to the Trophy Room flew open, and Tempus barged in, nursing a nasty head wound. He was surrounded by a small battalion of the armored guards.

"Here they are, Your Majesty!" Tempus cried, flailing his arms dramatically. "The escaped traitors who overpowered me! The ones I warned you about, who would try to destroy you!"

The armed guards parted, and in strode a menacing figure dressed all in black. A chill ran down the spine of everyone in the room as soon as he entered. It was as if an aura of evil and poison surrounded him. He was Kal-El, and he was the unopposed ruler of this world. Clark and Superman both felt nauseous as soon as they saw the silver "S" on Kal's chest, and the hatred deep within his eyes.

"Thank you, Tempus," Kal said. "I will deal with them. You may leave us."

"But…" Tempus started to protest, but Kal shot him a glare that interrupted him rather quickly. Reluctantly, Tempus and the guards marched back out the door, closing it behind them.

Kal turned back to the group of four gathered in front of him. Something that was almost a smile graced his lips as he set eyes on Wonder Woman. "Diana. It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Not long enough," she replied, her voice ice-cold.

As he began to walk toward her, Clark and Superman both stepped in front of Diana, blocking him from her. Kal laughed.

"Don't tell me you need these 'big, strong men' to protect you! You never seemed the type to let a man stick up for you."

"And I'm not," Diana said, placing a hand on each of their shoulders and pushing them apart. She stepped forward and faced Kal eye to eye. "You know I can handle myself."

"I certainly do," Kal said, grabbing her roughly by the wrist.

Clark slammed his hand down on Kal's forearm. "Don't touch her," he growled.

Kal glared at Clark. Then, his expression slowly faded to one of surprise, as if he was just now realizing that this Clark Kent looked exactly like him. Before Kal could speak, Superman landed a crushing blow across Kal's face, knocking him off balance. Then he grabbed Kal by the shoulders and head-butted him, sending him right to the floor.

"Clark!" Superman yelled. "Stick to the plan! I'll hold him off, you go find the Regulator!"

Clark nodded and began to sprint for the door, but Kal-El was much faster than his young counterpart. He had already recovered from the blow Superman had dealt him, and was blocking the door by the time Clark got to it.

"Have a seat, boy. You're not going anywhere," Kal sneered, then cut loose with a blast of heat vision so powerful that it sent Clark clear across the room. He tore through several of the trophy cases as he flew, landing unceremoniously in a pile of broken glass.

Superman dove at Kal, landing punch after punch to Kal's face and chest. Kal, unfazed, grabbed Superman by the shoulders and super-sped into the wall, smashing him right into another trophy case. Kal then proceeded to pummel Superman mercilessly with his fists and heat vision until he was barely conscious.

H.G. Wells knelt down beside Clark. "I say, dear boy, are you all right?" Clark could only moan in reply. His skin burned. Then, something small and round caught Wells' eye as it rolled past him, knocked from one of the trophy cases that Clark had smashed through.

Kal spat at Superman as he walked away from his limp body, leaving him dazed and bleeding in the shattered frame of the trophy case. "Rookies," Kal scoffed. Then he turned his attention back to Diana. "So tell me, whore. Where is my child?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, seething with anger.

"Don't play dumb, it doesn't suit you. The last time I saw you, you were pregnant with my child. It's been more than a year since then. I want to know where the baby is."

"I lost it."

"You're lying." He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him, violently. "I'm only going to ask you once more. Where is it?"

"He," Diana corrected quickly, in anger. "Not 'it'."

A sinister grin slowly crept across Kal's face. "So I have a son. This is wonderful news." His hand zipped to Diana's throat, choking her. "Now tell me. Where. He. Is."

She struggled against his grip, coughing and sputtering. She kicked at his shins and thrashed around, trying desperately to break free.

"What's that, Diana? I can't quite hear you. You'll have to speak up."

He squeezed tighter, with both hands now. The color drained from her face. She hit his hands and arms and shoulders and face, trying to get him to release her. Her mouth opened wide, gulping for air that she just could not take in. After a few moments, her legs gave out beneath her. Her struggling grew weaker. Kal stared her right in the eyes as he forced her to her knees, his hands still tight around her throat.

Clark watched in horror. This woman had saved his life only hours ago, when Tempus had been moments away from sending him and Superman to The Phantom Zone for all eternity. Now he was forced to watch as this monster was about to strangle her to death, right in front of his very eyes. This monster that looked exactly like him, talked exactly like him… this monster who was him. This vile, disgusting creature of pure evil who was everything that he hated about himself, everything that he feared becoming, everything that Jonathan and Martha Kent had warned him about, everything that they taught him was wrong.

Clark looked down at the sniper rifle that was on the floor, only inches from his hand.

"This is your last chance, bitch," Kal snarled. "Tell me where my son is."

He momentarily released his grip on Diana's throat. She gasped, taking in huge breaths of air. "He's safe…" she wheezed, finally. "Safe… from you."

He gripped her throat even tighter this time. She spat and sputtered, trying desperately to pry his fingers from around her neck.

Clark's head was still spinning, and every muscle in his body ached. His skin still felt hot from the blast of heat vision he'd taken. Slowly, his hand went for the rifle. His fingers touched the cold gun, cold as death against his searing flesh. He wrapped his fingers around it, and lifted it off the floor.

Diana's eyes rolled back in her head. Her choking pants for precious oxygen were coming fewer and farther between, and her struggling had all but ceased. She was only moments away from death.

Clark looked through the sight of the sniper rifle, and aimed it so he could see the silver "S" on Kal's chest. He pulled the trigger. A kryptonite bullet shot out from the gun.

And then bounced right off Kal-El's chest.

Kal looked down in surprise at the crushed green bullet that lay at his feet. Then he laughed. A laugh so loud and terrible that the walls of the trophy room actually shook. He threw Diana aside like a child discarding a toy that he's grown bored with, and Diana coughed and gagged and took in huge gulps of air once more, still alive but barely conscious.

"How…" Clark stammered, looking at the gun in confusion. "How? Those bullets were real kryptonite… I know they were. I could feel them when I got close…"

"Yes, idiot. They are kryptonite," Kal said, slowly walking towards Clark. "Only kryptonite doesn't affect me any more. I've become immune to it. I guess I should thank Lex Luthor for that. It was the last favor he ever did me, although he had no idea what he was doing. When he blew up Metropolis with that kryptonite-laced nuclear missile of his, I had to confine myself to this Fortress, keeping it surrounded by a force field from a Green Lantern ring at all times. I realized what a ridiculous way that was to live, let alone rule this planet. I thought of all the times that damned rock had almost killed me. It was my one weakness. I had to rid myself of that weakness."

Clark just stared up at Kal-El as he snatched the sniper rifle right out of his hand.

"So I let down the force field and went outside," Kal continued. "The green mist that hung in the air was so thick back then that you couldn't even see your own hand in front of your face. The first time I went out in it, I didn't even make it ten seconds before I lost consciousness and my guards had to bring me back inside. But each day, I managed to last a second or two longer. Every day I would go out into the green mist, and every day I'd last just a little bit longer against it. I'd hold out just a few seconds more. Until, after only a few weeks, I was able to stay outside for minutes, not just seconds. After a few months, I could last for over an hour. And now," Kal said with a smile, "Now the damned stuff doesn't even affect me. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner."

He pointed the gun at Clark, just inches from the boy's forehead.

"Do you really think that I'd be stupid enough to keep a weapon here that could actually hurt me?" Kal sneered.

A wild burst of green energy blew Kal across the room, sending him crashing into another row of trophy cases. The sniper rifle flew out of his hand, skittering across the ground and breaking in two as it struck a wall.

Kal shook broken glass from his arms and hair. "Who the hell!" he thundered.

H.G. Wells shuddered as he tried to recover from the blast of energy he'd just fired from the Green Lantern ring he currently sported on his left hand. "Oh, dear," he muttered, putting a hand on his head. "That took quite a lot out of me."

Kal stood up, letting out a primal yell as he threw his arms to the side, ripping apart the remains of the trophy case. "I don't know who you are, little man," he roared. "But I'm going to kill you!"

Superman, battered and bloody, stepped between Wells and Kal-El.

"Like hell you are," Superman growled. "You want to get to him, you've gotta go through me first."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

As Superman stood between Kal and H.G. Wells, he realized what he'd been doing wrong. It was rare that he fought an enemy that was anywhere close to his own power level. He'd grown used to holding back, pulling his punches. From the moment he'd first fought Kal-El back in his own reality, Superman had been refraining from using all his strength. He realized now, though, that he was fighting an enemy who was at least as strong as he was, if not stronger, and that this enemy would not hold back even an ounce of his might in battle. Superman would have to do the same.

Kal-El laughed. "So you've still got some fight left in you, eh? Fine. It makes no difference to me."

Superman lunged forward, flying at Kal-El and barraging him with a hailstorm of punches. Kal-El blocked some of them, but most hit their mark. Kal was surprised by the ferocity of the attack, given how easily he had taken Superman before. A wicked grin crossed his face. Finally, a challenge.

Kal and Superman lifted off the ground, spinning around in midair as they grappled with one another. Each landed blow after blow, the sheer force of impact from each punch shaking the entire room, knocking artifacts from the wall and shattering the remaining glass cases. Kal reared back and slugged Superman so hard that he was knocked across the room. Superman planted his feet against the wall as he hit, then used it as a springboard, launching himself like a missile back at Kal. He slammed into him with such force that they both went crashing straight through the wall and out into the hallway, sailing over the heads of an astonished Tempus and his entourage of guards.

"Follow them, you cretins!" Tempus shouted, pointing frantically at the two figures wrestling with each other as they sailed through the air. The pack of guards sprinted down the hall, chasing after Kal and Superman. Tempus spun around and ran the other way, heading back towards the trophy room.

H.G. Wells gently helped Clark to his feet, and they dusted the remaining shards of glass from Clark's clothing.

"Are you all right, Clark?" Wells asked.

"I will be. That blast of heat vision almost fried me… Wells, Kal-El is so much more powerful than I am," Clark said, a hint of fear creeping into his voice.

"I am afraid that you cannot hope to beat him on a physical level," Wells said, his tone grim. "Whether he is more powerful or not, he is certainly more ruthless, and, as Diana said, he is willing to kill."

"Diana," Clark said, repeating her name. He ran over to where she still lay on the floor, and knelt down beside her. She was unconscious, but still breathing, shallowly. "Wells, stay here with Diana. I'm going to go find the Regulator and shut it down."

"All right," Wells agreed. "Despite the size of the Regulator, it will still need to be powered by a crystal of some sort, like the one in my cabin was. All you have to do to shut down the regulator is find the crystal and remove it."

Tempus kicked open the door to the trophy room. "You'll have to get through me first, Clark," he said with a sneer.

Clark gritted his teeth and rose to his feet. "That shouldn't be a problem," he muttered, seething with anger. He couldn't get the mental image of Tempus killing Lana, Chloe and his parents out of his head. It was taking all the restraint he had not to rip his head off, but he knew that bringing out that kind of rage and hatred was Tempus's intention all along.

As Clark took several strides toward him, Tempus reached into his jacket and pulled out a small chunk of glowing red rock. He held it up with a smile. Clark stopped in his tracks.

"Now, I know all about what this stuff does to you where you come from," Tempus explained. "How it turns you into 'Bad Clark' or whatever. Boring! The ol' 'Red K' is much more interesting where my Superman comes from. It tends to have a wide range of varied effects, usually playing some kind of havoc with his super powers. This particular strain, however…" He walked right up to Clark and casually threw his arm around him. "This particular strain I swiped from Bill Church Junior, when he was still head of Intergang. Can you guess what it's effect is?"

Clark casually raised an eyebrow, then tried to stifle a yawn. "Should I really care?"

Tempus roared with laughter. "That's right, my boy! That's exactly right." He took Clark's hand, opened it, and slapped the red kryptonite rock right into his palm, then closed his fingers tightly around it. "It renders you completely apathetic. Melts all those pesky feelings of heroism right away, now doesn't it?"

"Clark!" Wells cried. "For God's sake, you've got to go destroy that Regulator!"

Clark turned back to Wells. "And why's that, again?"

"Because if you don't, this hell is the future! There will be no one to stop Kal-El!"

Clark shrugged. "Not my problem. I'm just Clark Kent, high school student from Smallville, Kansas. Let's let Superman handle this one, alright?"

Tempus grinned and winked at Wells. "You see, Herb? It's true what they say about today's youth. No motivation! Oh, how I weep for the future!" He chuckled wickedly to himself, and led Clark out of the room.

"Oh, my," Wells said, biting his lip. He took Diana's hand in his, and gently tapped it. "Please wake up, dear lady. We need you now more than ever."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Kal held Superman in a choke hold as they whizzed through the air, crashing through wall after wall, sending chunks of debris crumbling down to the floor in their wake. Superman reached back and locked his hands behind Kal's head, then spun around rapidly, sending them both spiraling down to the ground. They crash landed violently in a room filled with gigantic monitor screens, each showing a different part of the world.

"Haven't you ever felt it?" Kal-El asked, hoisting Superman to his feet. "The feeling that you're meant to rule the pathetic, disgusting inhabitants of this world?"

"No," Superman said through clenched teeth. He delivered a solid right hook to Kal's jaw, sending him reeling backward into a bank of monitors. A whole row of them short circuited, their screens blowing out on impact.

"Then you're lying to yourself!" Kal yelled, diving at Superman and tackling him to the ground. "All the people who've exploited you! The ones who learned your secrets and then tried to use them for their own gain! The ones who devoted their lives to destroying you! And still you would protect them? Why! For what!"

"Because that's who I am, and that's what I do!" Superman shot his knee up and buried it in Kal-El's solar plexus, then flipped Kal backwards off of him. "Because that's how Jonathan and Martha Kent raised me!"

Kal rolled with the impact, and landed in a crouch. He winced at the sound of their names. "Jonathan and Martha Kent were humans. They are not your true parents. Your father is Jor-El of Krypton. His will is that you rule this planet!"

Superman lifted off the ground in a burst of speed, grabbing Kal-El by the throat and dragging him upward with him. Kal dug his fingers deep into Superman's hand. "Maybe the Jor-El you know willed that!" Superman yelled. "The Jor-El who sent me to Earth did so to save me from the fate of a dying planet, so that I would live!"

"What kind of life do you call this," Kal shouted back, his eyes glowing red as he built up his heat vision, "where you devote yourself to saving a race that continually poisons their oceans, murders each other, sends their own children off to fight meaningless wars?"

Superman's eyes began to glow red as well. "I do what I do because I'm the only one who can do it. And because evil only truly triumphs when good men do nothing."

Both men unleashed devastating blasts of their powerful heat vision at the same time, causing an explosion that blew both of them back like two magnets repelling one another. Superman smashed into another bank of monitors, shattering them and bringing them crashing down around him. Kal hit the ground and skidded across the floor for a good fifty feet or so before coming to a stop. Both were back on their feet in seconds, running full speed at each other. They slammed into one another, landing punches simultaneously, blood splattering across the ground as it shook with the force of the blows.

"You can't tell me you've never wanted to kill Lex Luthor!" Kal-El shouted, taking a hit to the face. "You can't tell me that you've never wanted to crush his head between your hands! It would be so easy, and you know it!" He retaliated with a strong uppercut to Superman's chin. "All the criminals who've cheated justice, the rapists, the murderers, the child molesters! I know you must have wanted to burn them alive, to rip them apart! You can't tell me you've never wanted to kill them!"

Superman planted his hands on either side of Kal-El's head, his face contorted in anger. "Of course I've felt that! Everyone feels that rage! But you can't give into it! You have to believe in truth and justice!"

"I AM TRUTH AND JUSTICE!" Kal-El screamed. His fists tore into Superman with an unbridled fury, drawing more blood, knocking him almost completely senseless. Superman could barely see as Kal's unrelenting onslaught bore down on him. One last punch sent him to the floor.

Kal stood over him, breathing heavily as he wiped blood from his mouth with his arm. He looked down at a bruised and battered Superman, his costume torn, one of his eyes almost swollen shut.

"That's funny," Superman choked out, spitting up blood.

"What's funny?" Kal scoffed.

"Where I come from…" Superman breathed. "…we call you the problem."

Kal reared back and kicked Superman in the stomach, sending him sliding across the floor and smashing into the pile of busted monitors. Shaking off his dizziness and mustering all his will to focus, Superman dug his fingers into one of the broken monitors, lifted it up, and hurled it with all his might straight at Kal-El. It hit its mark, shattering into a million pieces against Kal-El's skull. He fell to his knees.

Superman wearily rose to his feet once more. He reached back and ripped off his torn and tattered cape, throwing it on the ground.

"Is that the best you got?" Superman muttered, wiping blood from his own mouth with the side of his hand. He couldn't help but smile. Kal howled with anger as he got back to his feet and charged at the Man of Steel once more.

Meanwhile, Tempus strolled down the hallway with his arm still around Clark. Tears streamed down Tempus' cheeks as he lost himself in a fit of laughter, slapping Clark on the back.

"And then," Tempus roared, finding it difficult to speak because he was laughing so hard. "Then I made Herb say, 'Let's wrap fish in the Constitution, and chuck all the old laws!'" Tempus had to stop walking and hold his stomach, taking a step back and bracing one hand against the wall. After a moment or two, he was able to compose himself. He stood up and wiped the tears from his eyes. "Oh, God, that was great," he said with a sigh. "But, of course, Superman had to go and ruin everything. I swear, the guy really has no sense of humor."

Clark gave Tempus a blank stare.

"Then again, I can tell you don't really give two hoots about any of this," Tempus said with a shrug. "Oh well."

"So let me see if I have this straight," Clark said condescendingly. "Your whole deal is that you're from the future, which you found boring because it was a perfect Utopian society, and decided to ruin it by going into the past and killing Superman?"

Tempus shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah… so?"

"So why didn't you just go back and kill Superman when he was a baby?"

"I tried that!" Tempus said quickly. "Superman went back in time, too, and stopped me!"

"So why didn't you just try it again?" Clark asked, folding his arms. "You have a time machine, you idiot. You could go back and do it as many times as you wanted."

Tempus scrunched up his lips and stared at the floor, deep in thought.

"I mean, DUH!" Clark said, waving a hand in the air.

"All right. That's it. Phantom Zone. Let's go," Tempus said, grabbing Clark by the collar and marching him down the hallway. "At first you were just a nuisance, now you're really pissing me off."

Just then, Tempus was taken to the ground as a roundhouse kick connected with the back of his skull. Clark turned to see Wonder Woman standing behind him, her fists clenched. She reached forward quickly and pried the chunk of red kryptonite from Clark's hand, then hurled it down the hallway. The apathetic effects wore off instantly.

"Diana…" Clark said, returning to his old self. "You're all right!" He threw his arms around her, hugging her close. She was caught off guard by the sudden display of emotion, but reluctantly returned the gesture and hugged Clark back.

"Clark," she said, gently pushing back from the embrace. Her voice was hoarse and raspy. "You've got to find the Regulator and shut it down."

"Right," he said, nodding. He began to run down the hallway, but stopped short as his super hearing tuned into something from elsewhere in the fortress. He focused in on it. It wasn't hard to pick out. He could hear the sickening sounds of Superman and Kal-El's bloody brawl, raging on clear across the building. With his x-ray vision, he saw that Kal seemed to be winning.

He turned around and started running the other way.

"Clark, where are you going!" Diana barely managed to yell.

"Superman needs my help," he called back over his shoulder.

"You can't hope to beat Kal-El! He's too strong!"

"I know!"

Clark sped down the hallway, and threw open the doors to the room with the holo-spheres. He walked towards the center of the room, looking up and down the long rows of globes. They all looked alike to him. How could he ever figure out which was which? He ran his hands gently over one of the spheres, hoping that somehow he could attune himself to the Kryptonian technology and sense what he was looking for. It didn't seem to be working.

"Can I help you, master?" said a monotone voice that seemed to be coming from all around him.

Clark looked around, startled. "Who said that?"

"I did. Do you not remember your own creation?" the voice replied.

"Of course…" Clark whispered. "Of course, I remember you, Brainiac," he said aloud. "And yes, I do need your help."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Superman crashed through another wall and landed on his back, covered from head to toe in dust and debris. As he blinked the dirt from his eyes he was vaguely aware of his surroundings, and was able to make the connection that the room he'd landed in was the same throne room that they'd seen in the hologram earlier, the room where Kal had so heartlessly murdered the other members of the League.

Kal burst through the wall right after him, raising his fists as he leapt into the air. He came down hard, driving his fists into Superman's face over and over again. Superman tried to knock Kal off of him with a blast of heat vision, but he just couldn't do it. His eyes were nearly swollen shut and he could barely see, let alone muster up his heat vision at this point. He swung his fists blindly, hoping to land a glancing blow. Kal-El dodged his punches as super speed.

"Look at you!" Kal laughed. "You have no fight left in you!" He grabbed the sides of Superman's face, lifted his head off the ground, then smashed it against the floor. The room was spinning. Blood oozed out of the side of his mouth. "And you're supposed to be the world's greatest hero. What did Lois Lane ever see in you, I wonder?"

Lois. Lois Lane. The woman he loved. If he died here on this demented world, there would be no one to protect her. She would be all alone. He'd never see her again. He saw her face in his mind's eye. Saw all the times they'd held each other. The first time they'd ever kissed. The time she'd told him that she knew he was Superman. Their wedding day.

"Lo…is…" he whispered.

"Well!" Kal laughed. "It can still ta-"

It was a burst of energy that he didn't think he could possibly still have left in him. They shot up off the ground, Kal's neck firmly planted between Superman's arms, and they crashed into the ceiling. Superman drove Kal's head into the ceiling repeatedly, even as blood and sweat poured from his own forehead, and he felt he could lose consciousness at any moment. Kal-El swatted at Superman's powerful arms, trying to get him to release his grip on his neck and shoulders. With one last Herculean effort, Superman hurled Kal-El back to the ground, then dove at him at full speed, hammering him straight into the floor.

It was too much. He'd made that last effort on pure adrenaline, and now the fumes he'd been running on had all but run out. Kal threw his elbow back and knocked Superman off him with ease. He pulled himself to his feet, dragging Superman's limp body with him.

"Well that was very impressive," Kal said. "Ultimately futile, but, impressive." He delivered another crushing punch to Superman's face, which sent him tumbling back to the floor. Kal towered over him, the red, crackling energy of heat vision building up in his eyes. "You put up a good fight, old man, I'll give you that. But this symbol was only meant to be worn by the true son of Jor-El." Kal opened the floodgates and unleashed a torrent of heat vision, searing Superman's skin. He let out a scream of unbearable pain.

"STOP IT!" a voice cried out from behind them.

Kal's heat vision fizzled to an abrupt stop. He spun around to see Clark Kent standing in the hole that they'd made when they crashed into the room just moments ago.

"Take a number, boy," Kal said with a sneer. "You're next."

"Tempus has been using you," Clark declared. "You're nothing but his puppet. He twisted you, turning you into what he wanted, so you'd murder the Supermen of the other realities and prevent Utopia from happening."

"That's ridiculous," Kal said. "I came to power long before Tempus ever entered the picture!"

"Oh really?" Clark reached out his hand. In his palm he held one of the holo-spheres. As he waved his other hand over it, it began to radiate an intense white light. The light filled the room, and the globe began to display the piece of history that it contained.

Kal's eyes went wide as he saw the image of the truck that he knew so well in his youth. The truck that had belonged to his father, Jonathan Kent. The truck that he himself had driven so many times into town, to drop off produce orders at The Talon, to meet his friends, to go to school. Then, he saw the truck's occupants. Jonathan and Martha Kent. Chloe Sullivan. Lana Lang.

"Mom…? Dad…?" Kal-El whispered. His voice cracked a little. He stepped forward, reaching out his hand, as if he could touch them. "My God. I haven't seen them in so long." His voice was softer now, as if it was not Kal-El speaking, but the part of him that still was and would always be Clark Kent of Smallville Kansas.

He watched in horror as the truck swerved off the road. He heard Jonathan yell out in his authoritative voice for the others to brace themselves, because the brakes had gone out. Chloe grabbed Lana's arm. The truck flipped over, and over, and over…

"No!" The fear was frozen on Kal-El's face. He ran towards the hologram, as if he could somehow jump inside of it and stop what was happening. He fell to his knees in despair as he watched, hopelessly. The truck was a mess of twisted metal and broken glass. His hand went to his mouth. Jonathan Kent. Martha Kent. Chloe Sullivan. All killed on impact.

Then he watched as a man in a black business suit entered the scene, carrying a can of gasoline. The man proceeded to pour the gas all over the overturned truck and the three dead bodies, as well as the body of the still living Lana Lang.

"No…" Kal-El whispered.

"Oh, Miss Lang," the man in the hologram said as Lana regained consciousness. "I was really hoping you would have just died on impact like Chloe and the Kents. I should've known cutting the brake lines would just be far too easy. I really don't want you to take any of this personally. I'm just trying to prevent a dreadfully dull Utopian future. You understand, don't you? Your deaths should be just what it takes to push your friend Clark Kent over the edge."

Kal watched as the scene continued to play out. Finally, the man removed a lighter from his pocket.

"Trust me, Miss Lang," the man said. "What I do now, I do for a better tomorrow. But somehow, I doubt that will be of much consolation."

"NO!" Kal yelled, as he watched the man flick the lighter open. He lit it as casually as if he were lighting a cigarette, then tossed it to the ground. The flames shot up the instant the lighter hit the glistening grass.

Kal-El's scream was so deafening that no one could hear it. He threw his head back, his entire body shaking as he let loose a roar of pain and despair. Huge cracks shot up the walls of the throne room, and an earthquake spread for miles around. As his scream subsided, Kal slowly fell to his knees. He buried his face in his hands, tears streaming down his cheeks. He hunched forward, rocking back and forth slightly as he sobbed into his hands.

The hologram sputtered out, and Clark lowered the globe. He bowed his head. The hologram had been just as difficult for him to watch. He'd only heard Wells explain what had happened, before. Seeing it play out before his eyes had been devastating. As much as he hated Kal-El, he could not help but sympathize with him. He knew exactly what he was feeling.

Just then, Tempus burst into the room. "I'm getting awfully tired of this!" he shouted. "The next person who knocks me out is getting…" His voice faded as Kal-El's head whipped around towards him, his face contorted in rage. Kal rose to his feet, the repressed heat vision burning in his eyes once more.

"You monster," Kal snarled, walking towards Tempus with clenched fists. "You vile, disgusting…"

"Um… I missed something, I think?" Tempus choked out, pulling at his collar. "Did I do something wrong?"

"You murdered my family and friends in cold blood, so that I would turn to Jor-El! So that I would become, become THIS!" His hands trembled. "My God… I killed Bruce! Hal! Bart! Kyle! What have you turned me into, Tempus! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?"

He grabbed Tempus with one hand and hoisted him into the air.

"Oh, come on! All that! You can't be serious! That was forever ago, Kal, baby! I figured you would've moved passed that by now! Besides…" Tempus slapped something into Kal's free hand. "…you don't really care, now do you?"

Kal looked quizzically for a moment at the glowing red rock in his hand. Then he squeezed, hard, cracking the bones in Tempus's hand and crushing the piece of red kryptonite. Tempus cried out in a howl of pain.

"Looks like I'm immune to all strains of kryptonite, Tempus," Kal hissed. "And now I'm going to burn the flesh from your bones, the way you did to Lana."

Clark put a hand on Kal's shoulder. "No, Kal. It doesn't have to be that way. You're right, Tempus did turn you into a murderer. But you don't have to be that any more. Killing him won't change what happened. But we can fix this. I know how we can."

Slowly, Kal lowered Tempus back to the ground. "You… you are right. I… am… I am not a murderer. Jonathan and Martha Kent… I mean… my Mom and Dad, they taught me… they taught me better than this…" Tears were welling up in Kal's eyes, evaporating into steam almost instantly as his repressed heat vision continued to pop and sizzle. Reluctantly, Kal let go of Tempus.

"There, now. Looks like we can be reasonable, after all," Tempus said. He quickly reached into his jacket, pulled out the white time-gate cube, and tossed it into the air. "See you later, suckers!" he laughed.

There was a quick streak of blue, and the cube disappeared from the air before it could expand into the window. Across the room, Superman stood holding the cube. Though he was bruised, bloody and battered, he managed a smile. "You're not getting away that easily this time, Tempus."

Tempus turned, ducked out of the room, and sprinted down the hall. Before any of the three men could even go after him, there was a thunderous "BOOM!", and a flash of yellow light. Superman, Clark, and Kal-El all exchanged confused looks. They stepped out into the hallway, to find it empty. Tempus had disappeared.

"What just happened?" Clark asked.

"I am not sure," Kal replied. Then, he grew angry. "Damn it! He got away! You should have just let me kill him!"

"No! Now calm down," Clark said. "I told you we can fix this, and we can."

"Of course," Kal sighed with relief. He turned to Superman. "The time gate. If we just go back and prevent Tempus from murdering my parents and friends…"

"We already tried that," Superman said. "It didn't work."

"What do you mean!" Kal roared.

"Wells went back in time and tried to correct the past, but it didn't change the future," Superman explained. "We think it's because of the Temporal Disruption Regulator. What we need to do is-"

But Kal wasn't hearing him. "Bah!" he spat, and turned away in frustration. "I'll fix this myself then!" With that, he tore off into the air, ripping through the ceiling and launching himself out into space.

H.G. Wells stumbled into the room through the hole in the wall, dusting himself off. "My word… what's happened in here?" he asked.

"I used the holo-sphere to show Kal-El how Tempus changed the past," Clark said. "But then he just took off through the ceiling."

There was an intense sonic boom, and the whole fortress shook. A few moments later, another one followed. Then another, and another, until they were hearing a boom every few seconds.

"My God," Wells gasped. "I know what he's trying to do."

"What?" Superman and Clark asked in unison.

"He's trying to fly backwards around the Earth and reverse its rotation, in an attempt to reverse time," Wells said, flabbergasted.

"What!" Clark exclaimed. "Is that even possible?"

"Theoretically, I don't know!" Wells said, adjusting his glasses. "But not in this world, in any event! The Disruption Regulator won't allow it! He'll sooner tear this planet apart by knocking it out of its gravitational orbit before he could ever hope to reverse time! My dear boys, unless we get to that Regulator and deactivate it immediately, the world is quite doomed!"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Superman grabbed Wells, and he and Clark sped down to the lowest level of the fortress. There, they were greeted by a sight that took their breath away. They found themselves in the midst of a veritable canyon deep beneath the fortress, where the Disruption Regulator that Clark had seen in Wells' grandfather clock had been recreated a thousand times bigger. All around them, machines hummed with life, casting an intricate web of laser beams throughout the canyon. The beams reflected off mirrors and prisms that were embedded in the walls, and all seemed to be directed towards what had to be the center of the chamber.

"My word," Wells gasped. "This machinery is like nothing I've ever seen before!"

"I recognize some of it," Superman said. "From the holograms I've seen of Krypton."

"Yes," Wells said. "Some of it seems to be Kryptonian in origin. Kal-El must have helped Tempus create it. And some of the technology is Earth-based. But there seems to be a third aspect to this technology, that must have come from somewhere else, somewhere beyond Earth or Krypton…" Wells ran his hands over one of the machines. "It's extraordinary. Where could Tempus have gotten his hands on this?"

Clark walked among the rows of machines, following the path of the laser beams toward the center. Wells had said there needed to be one central crystal in the configuration, and that removing it would shut down the Regulator. All of the laser beams converged in one spot, in the center of the chamber.

There, he saw it. The central crystal.

"Oh my God," he whispered.

It was Lana's necklace. The one that had been made from a piece of the meteor that killed her parents, but had been turned to crystal by his spaceship. Kal-El had used it as the central power source of the Regulator. Millions of laser beams passed through the tiny crystal, and it glowed brilliantly with an incredible energy radiating through it.

Clark stepped forward, and reached out slowly to touch it. The luminescence cast an intense light across his face, and he actually had to squint his powerful eyes. There was an intense heat coming from the crystal. Clark was afraid to touch it, and he pulled his hand back.

The sonic booms they had been hearing every few seconds had now become one constant, continuous roar. The cavern began to shake, and the machinery was jostled. Some of the lasers began to flicker slightly.

"Oh dear," Wells said, holding his hat to his head and sprinting to where Clark was standing. "I fear we may be too late!"

Wells and Superman joined Clark's side as some of the machines began to groan and crackle.

"Quickly, Clark!" Wells shouted. "Remove the crystal!"

Clark hesitated another moment, then plunged his hand in. He could feel the searing heat of the laser beams. As he yanked it away, the lasers that had passed through the crystal shot wildly around the room, and sparks rained down around them. Superman grabbed Wells and pulled him away from a shower of sparks that nearly fried him where he stood.

The whole room began to quake even more violently, and the roaring boom grew even louder. Smoke quickly filled the canyon.

"Wells, what's happening?" Clark shouted.

"I fear the damage to this timeline may already be too great!" Wells yelled back, covering his head as chunks of machinery fell down around them. "The changes that have been made to the past… Kal-El attempting to reverse the rotation of the Earth… Shutting down the Regulator should have triggered a smooth restoration of the space-time continuum, but I fear the transition will be a rather violent one! This world will come to a horrible end before time is restored!"

"What can we do to stop it?" Superman yelled over the noise.

"Nothing!" Wells yelled back. "Time will be restored to its proper order! But we must leave this universe now, or risk being erased with it as the change takes effect!"

Superman handed the time-gate cube that he'd snatched from Tempus to H.G. Wells. Wells calibrated it, then tossed it into the air, and it expanded into the familiar blue window that would take them from this world.

"Wait," came a voice from behind them. They turned to see Diana standing there, fighting back tears.

"Diana," Clark breathed.

"You are right about this world," Diana said, sadly. "It will experience a horrible end. In his effort to reverse the rotation of the Earth, Kal-El has ripped the planet from its orbit. The world is spiraling into the sun, and will soon explode."

Wells, Clark, and Superman were all silent. They looked at one another, desperately.

"The… proper timeline should be restored in just a few moments…" Wells managed to say. "It is unlikely that the end you have described will transpire before that happens."

"Even so… I have one favor to ask of you, travelers," she said.

From the darkness, a green man stepped forward, holding a crying baby. They recognized the man from the hologram they had seen of Kal-El fighting the League. He was called J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter.

"J'onn has kept my baby hidden here, beneath the fortress, since he was born," Diana explained.

"I was able to use my mental powers to shield Kal-El and his men from detecting our presence," J'onn said. "We thought it wise to keep the child here, as we were unsure how the green Kryptonite mist that hangs in the air outside might affect him."

"Please take my baby with you," Diana pleaded. "If this world is in its final moments, he doesn't deserve to experience that… to experience the end of the world before he has a chance to live his life. Kal-El may have become a monster, but our child was truly conceived in love." She stared into Clark's eyes. "Please… please take him with you, so that he may have a chance at life."

Wells stepped forward. "You have done so much for us," he said to Diana. "It is the least we can do. I know a place where the child will be safe." J'onn handed the baby to Wells.

"Come with us," Clark said, taking Diana's hand.

"No," she said, with a weak smile. "My place is here, with this world. Whatever fate befalls it, it is my fate as well." She gently kissed Clark's cheek. Her lips felt warm and soft. "May Hera watch over all of you," she whispered.

The quake continued to grow stronger, to the point where they could barely stand. The room had almost completely filled with smoke, making it difficult to see.

"We should go," Wells said, cradling the infant in his arms. With one final farewell, Clark, Superman, and Wells stepped through the window, and it drew itself shut.

Diana rested her head against J'onn's shoulder, and let a tear fall down her cheek. Her baby would be safe. To her, that was all that mattered. J'onn quietly took Diana in his arms, and the two old friends silently waited for the world to end.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Clark awkwardly shifted the baby in his arms, trying to make sure he was supporting the little guy's head just right. The infant looked around the room with wide, curious blue eyes, and seemed fascinated by the light from the fire that burned in the fireplace. Clark wanted to ask Wells how the fireplace had seemingly fixed itself after he'd ripped it out of the wall earlier, but he figured the explanation would have just given him a headache.

Wells opened the face of the grandfather clock and looked at the Disruption Regulator inside, then glanced at his pocket watch. He nodded, satisfied with whatever it was that he was checking. Then he closed the face of the clock and returned to join Clark and Superman, who were sitting in large easy chairs beside the fireplace.

"Once the time stream has returned to normal, what will happen to the other Supermen that Kal-El killed or imprisoned in the Phantom Zone?" Superman asked. "Will they return to their own universes?"

"It's a bit too early to tell, but I believe they will," Wells replied, pouring himself a glass of ice water from a pitcher that sat on his coffee table. "We should know soon, in any event."

The wounds Superman had suffered at the hands of Kal-El were already starting to heal. Once he got home and spent some solid time basking in the rays of the yellow sun in his own universe, he'd be good as new in no time. Clark, meanwhile, couldn't take his eyes off the baby that he cradled in his arms. He felt such a close connection with the child, especially knowing that, in a way, the baby was his own son. He didn't know how he was ever going to be able to let him go.

There was still much that weighed heavily on Clark's mind, however. "Wells… you said earlier that you weren't sure how much of the past Tempus changed, and that maybe he did more to it than what we knew about. How do we know that we really fixed everything that he did, and that we've really prevented me from turning out like Kal-El?"

Wells sighed and took a long sip of his water. "We don't know for sure, Clark. I don't think we can ever know for sure. The future is constantly in a state of flux. The smallest detail can change it in incredible ways. But believe me when I say, I will keep a close eye on how yours progresses, and I won't be far away if you ever need a hand again."

"…When he was strangling Diana…" Clark began, slowly. "…I thought he was going to kill her. When I shot him, with the kryptonite bullet… I had no way of knowing he was immune to Kryptonite. If he hadn't been, that shot probably would have killed him. After all I said about the only thing that separated us was that he was a murderer and I wasn't… just a few minutes later, I was ready to kill him. That scares me."

Wells walked over and put a hand on Clark's shoulder. "The potential for both good and evil exists in all of us, Clark. We all have a darkness in our soul. The part of you that became Kal-El is very real. But we choose our actions. We choose who we become, and what path we follow. And your destiny, Clark, the path that lies before you, is not an easy one. But it is an incredible, fascinating and wonderful one."

"I've had those same feelings, too, Clark," Superman said, standing up. "When I was fighting Kal-El, a lot of what he said really did get to me. There is so much that is wrong with the world. And yes, it does frustrate me incredibly when the world I've saved so many times over continues to be polluted and plagued with war and famine and disease. When criminals that I've put away continue to end up back on the streets. When I'm trying to do good out there, and there are still people who hate me and want to kill me. Sometimes I can't even sleep because of it. But you can't let those things discourage you from doing what you know in your heart is right. You have the potential to make a huge difference in the world, and to do an incredible amount of good. To deny that, and turn away from it, would be the biggest crime of all."

"So what you're saying is…" Clark said with a slowly growing smile. "…I'm gonna end up wearing a cape and long underwear too?" They all laughed.

"You would be surprised, my dear boy, how iconic that costume has become, in many universes throughout all of reality," Wells said.

"Uh huh," Clark said, rolling his eyes. "We'll see!"

"Well, my friends," Wells said. "I think it is high time that we got you back to your own worlds."

Clark's face fell. He held the baby a little closer to his chest. "Where are you going to take him?" he asked.

"As I said, I know somewhere where he will be quite safe. Rest assured of that, Clark," Wells said. He stepped forward and reached out his hands, and Clark very reluctantly handed the baby over to Wells. The baby fussed a little as he changed hands, but settled back down quickly. Clark stood up and picked up the white cube off the coffee table.

"You said this will take me right back to the same moment that I left, right?" he asked.

"Quite right," Wells said. "You will be transported back to your world the very instant that you left it, and it will be as if no time has passed."

Clark tossed the cube into the air, and it opened up into the blue window once again. He turned and faced Superman and Wells.

"Thank you both, so much, for all your help."

Superman smiled, and reached out his hand. Clark grinned from ear to ear, and the two shook hands.

"Take care of yourself, Clark," Superman said.

"I will." He turned and gave the baby one final smile, and ran his finger gently down the child's cheek. "Bye little guy," he whispered. "You take care of yourself, too." Then Clark faced the time window, and, after taking a deep breath, stepped into the icy coldness of the vortex one final time. The window closed behind him, and the cube fell into Superman's outstretched hand.

"I guess we'd better get you back, too," Wells said to Superman.

"Yes," he replied. "There's just one thing I wanted to ask you about first, now that Clark's gone." Superman reached behind him and produced something that he'd tucked into his belt. It was the octagonal disk. "I found this in Kal-El's trophy room. Something about it caught my eye. Remember Clark mentioned it when we were in the dungeon? He said that it came from his space ship, and that when he put it into a cave wall, it gave him the ability to read the Kryptonian language?"

"Yes, I seem to recall that," Wells said. "What about it?"

Superman held it up to the light, and tilted it back and forth. There were small symbols engraved in it. "Wells," Superman said with a frown, his tone grim. "The symbols on this disk are not Kryptonian at all."

Across time and space, Clark Kent emerged from the icy blue void, and stumbled back onto firm ground. The sun in the Kansas sky still shone brightly, and it warmed him to the core. He'd never been so glad to be in Smallville. He took a deep breath, letting the air seep deep into his lungs, then let it back out slowly.

Then, his super hearing picked up the sound of a car motor. "Oh, man, I completely forgot," he muttered to himself. When he had first stepped into the time window and left Smallville behind, Lana Lang had been just about to pull up to the Kent Farm.

After another minute or two, Lana's car turned down the dirt path that led up to the barn, and she drove up beside Clark. She shut the engine off and got out of the car. Her hair blew softly behind her in the gentle afternoon breeze, and she gave him a shy smile.

"Hey," she said, gently.

"Hi, Lana, what's up?"

"Nothing much. Amanda's filling in for me at The Talon for the rest of the afternoon, so I figured I'd get away for a bit. If you're not too busy I thought you might want to get a bite to eat or something?"

"Sure, that would be great," Clark said with a grin.

"Great," Lana smiled back. "Oh, um, listen… when you came by The Talon earlier, was there something else you wanted to tell me? You seemed kind of preoccupied, and then that weird old man showed up, and we never got to finish talking!"

"Oh, right," Clark said. "Um…" He stuck his hands in his pockets, awkwardly. He'd been going to try to ask her out that weekend. Now that he was in her presence again, he became completely tongue tied. All he could think about was the hologram he'd seen in the future, of Lana being brutally murdered at Tempus's hands, all because of him. All without ever knowing the truth about him and all his secrets. Now, here she was, right in front of him, alive and healthy, and so incredibly lovely. Her soft brown hair framed her face like a work of art, falling gently over her shoulders. He stared into her dark, mysterious eyes, trying to find the words to tell her how happy he was to see her.

His fingertips brushed over something in his pocket. He furrowed his eyebrows, confused. Then, he realized what it was. He pulled the crystal necklace out of his pocket, and held it up to the light. It shimmered beautifully.

"Clark," Lana whispered, shocked. "Is that…?"

"Lana," Clark said, gently. He stepped forward and took her hand in his. He looked deep into her eyes, and tried to fight back the tears that were building up in his. "There is so much I have to tell you."


	18. Chapter 18

Epilogue

As soon as Superman found himself back in his own universe, there was only one person he wanted to see. The woman who had captured the heart of the man in the cape; his wife, Lois. No sooner had he gotten back than he flew straight to their home, plucked her from where she stood, whisked her outside and spiraled into the sky, their lips locked in a passionate kiss. As they soared higher and higher into the sky, the warmth of the yellow sun seeped through his pores and rejuvenated his body, just as the warmth of Lois's sweet mouth rejuvenated his weary soul.

After many long minutes, the kiss finally broke off. Superman rested his forehead against Lois's, and gazed into her eyes.

"Let's have a baby," he whispered.

Her jaw dropped. "Are you serious?" she breathed. "I mean, I know we've talked about it before, but… I mean, do you really want to try to have one? Do you think we're ready?"

He answered by plunging in for another kiss.

Weeks passed. Superman, now at home in his role as Clark Kent, husband, snuggled in bed with his wife. The idea that he had proposed after returning home from his time travel adventure had proven to be much more complicated than he'd first realized. After consulting both their trusted friend Dr. Klein from S.T.A.R. Labs and Lois's father, Dr. Sam Lane, the conclusion that they had come to was that it was physically impossible for a Kryptonian man and an Earth woman to have a child together.

"I'm sorry," Lois said, softly.

"For what?" Clark replied.

"I'm sorry that Daddy can't find anything wrong with S.T.A.R. Labs' data. He doesn't think we'll be able to have kids."

Clark almost had to laugh, and wonder if telepathy was secretly a super power that Lois possessed. She always seemed to know what was weighing on his mind.

"I have not, for one second, doubted in us," Clark said gently. "We live the impossible. A child is something brought about by love, isn't it? Well then, that above all else has got to be possible for us."

Lois smiled and ran her hand tenderly over Clark's. Clark smiled back, reassuringly. Just then, he got that faraway look in his eye that told Lois that his super hearing had picked up something.

"Clark, what're you hearing?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," he replied.

"Well what does it sound like?"

He turned and looked back at her. "I can't actually believe what it sounds like," he said.

Lois and Clark went downstairs together, following the noise that Clark had heard. As they opened the sliding door to the foyer, they were met with a sight that took their breath away. A white bassinet sat in the middle of the room. Inside the bassinet was a tiny baby, wrapped in a red and blue blanket. Lois's hand went to her chest, in disbelief of her own two eyes. Inside the bassinet with the baby was a card, which read simply, "Lois and Clark, this child belongs to you."

Wells, Clark thought, beaming. He told us he would take the baby someplace safe… well there's no safer place than with me and Lois. If we're really not able to have children of our own, then we'll raise this baby with all the love and support that we would have given our own kids.

The baby cooed as Lois picked him up from the bassinet and cradled him in her arms. Finally, Lois Lane and Clark Kent were parents, as they had longed to be, and had a child that they could share their love with. This child would be truly blessed.

Across the cosmos. Another planet, where fire burned from its core and shot out of craters, scorching the sky and casting a dreary blackness of ash and soot all over the land. The inhabitants of this world referred to it as Apokolips. A solitary figure looked down over the denizens of this planet, his loyal subjects, from his tower. He was a huge, hulking brute. His skin was gray and brittle like granite, and his eyes burned red like two embers set deep within his skull. He was born Uxas, son of Yuga Khan and Queen Heggra. The name by which he was now known and feared was Darkseid.

His silent brooding was interrupted by an earsplitting "BOOM!", as the air behind him was ripped momentarily apart. A yellow light shone through a hole in space and time, and Tempus stumbled forward through the Boom Tube, clutching his wrist. He slowly rotated his hand, frowning at the chunks of red kryptonite that were still embedded deep in his flesh.

The Boom Tube closed behind him, and Tempus was left staring up at Darkseid, who towered over him.

"Tempus," Darkseid muttered in disgust, his voice like a low rumble of thunder. "You have failed me."

For once in his life, Tempus was at a loss for words. "I… um… that is… well… Oh come on, big guy! This is just a little setback! We can bounce back from this!"

"The alternate reality that we created ceased to exist several minutes ago," Darkseid continued. "All our preparations were for nothing. The other Supermen are already starting to reappear in their own universes."

Tempus and Darkseid were joined by a third individual, cloaked in a purple robe. He was Desaad, Darkseid's lackey and a master of the art of torture. "Lord Darkseid," Desaad said with a slight bow.

"Yes, Desaad?"

"We were only able to transfer 47 of Brainiac's memory banks before he went off-line, sire."

"This disappoints me further," Darkseid said with a scowl.

"Listen, Big D!" Tempus cried with a shrug. "We're still in control as long as the dopey kid has the fake key, right? We'll just start all over again!"

"Fake key, sire?" Desaad inquired.

Darkseid produced a metal, octagonal disk. "Indeed. This disk is a key that came to Earth with Kal-El's space ship. I had Tempus go into the past and replace it with one of my own design. The language that Kal-El believes he is reading as Kryptonian is actually a native language of Apokolips, and the messages he believes are from his father, Jor-El, are in fact coming from me."

"Brilliant," Desaad said with a delighted smile.

"But ultimately useless," Darkseid declared. "You have wasted my time, Tempus, and proven yourself worthless to me. Desaad, you may torture Tempus to death."

Tempus's eyes went wide in fear, and he backed away from he wickedly grinning Desaad. "Whoa, now, don't you think you're overreacting a little here, Big D! I mean, we can just try again! I mean, we've got a time machine! We can do this thing as many times as we want! Duh!"

"Now that the time travel technology is in my possession, your role has become unnecessary, Tempus," Darkseid replied, coldly. "I have no further use for you."

"Um, actually, sire, there is one bit of good news," Desaad added. "It seems that there was a survivor of the end of the alternate reality."

"Oh?"

"Yes, sire… the baby survived. The time travelers took the child with them."

Darkseid did not react to this news. He merely continued to stare down at the abysmal planet that stretched out beneath him. Then he raised his hand to his mouth, and clenched his massive fist. "The child of the Last Son of Krypton and the Princess of the Amazons," he mused. "He would have the potential to be the most powerful being in the universe." Darkseid finally turned away from his view of Apokolips. "I may have use for you after all, Tempus. You have one final chance to redeem yourself."

"Oh, anything," Tempus said, pitifully, still backing away from Desaad. "Name it, Darkseid. What is it that you want me to do?"

An unholy smile crept across Darkseid's lips.

"Bring me the Son of Kal-El."

THE END


End file.
